lus'hpp > ';'■■;< ^.'■■■ll''■>•^'.■:■-}^ •■;•;■,■> ■•:.'■. VV n^iJ'i ■■■■■'■1 V ■:• :'^'U'>^' ■ •■- ;■■■.■--.■•' ' , ■ .. 11 iiiiliy;i,;i*;;iHvf;. * K .V -> " ff 1 ' o^ A^ '^' •on VASCO DA GAMA AND THE TOWN OF CALICUT EARLIER VOYAGES. 35 "As early as 1402, a Norman gentleman, Jean de Bethencourt, fitted out an expedition to conquer and settle the Canary Islands, which had been visited by Europeans and by Arabs already. Bethencourt was a courageous and spirited fellow, and he pushed down the African coast as far as Cape Bojador. " In Portugal, meanwhile, that plucky, wide-awake Don Henry, the third son of King John, lived in his castle on Cape Sagres, just above Cape St. Vincent, here, and looked off to sea. No tournaments there, no feasts, no hunting ; it was all, just like Lady Oliver's parlor here, consecrated to science. Jews and Moors, people from Tunis and Venice and Genoa and Minorca, anybody who had travelled, was welcome here. Here was a fine ob- servatory ; and here he established a nautical school. He took for his motto, ' The talent to do goo d^^ and, as he stood on his rocky outlook every day, and watched the sea, his wish and hope was to learn more of its mysteries. " A gentleman of his court, Gil Eanez, had displeased him by taking some people from the Canaries, to make slaves of them, without his permission. To recover the prince's favor, he went on an adventure in 1433, and passed Cape Bojador fifty miles. Alphonso Gongalez took up the work then, and in a small vessel, with only twenty-one sailors, he went as far as the river of gold. He brought back some negroes, who were the first real negroes of curly hair, and wholly black, whom the Por- tuguese had seen. Nuno Tristao went farther. All these discoveries were made at Don Henry's suggestion and at his cost. A trade in ivory and pepper and slaves sprang up from it; and there were sometimes thirty vessels engaged in it. In 1419 the Madeiras were dis- covered, and in 1445 the Islands of Cape Verd. 36 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, " So the Portuguese seamen kept creeping along, step by step, till they had discovered the whole Gulf of Guinea. In 1469 the king gave to Gomez, a Lisbon merchant, the privilege of trading on the coast of Sene- gambia, on condition that he should every year ex- plore a hundred miles of coast. Don Henry had died in 1760, but he had sent out no less than fifty ex- peditions, and he had inspired all Portugal with his enthusiasm. He is ' Henry the Navigator.' " A war with Spain postponed adventure for a while ; but in 1484, Bartholomew Diaz made an eager effort to pass the Cape of Good Hope, still unknown. They had every reason to know it was somewhere, for Hanno's vessels had passed it in the Carthaginian times. Diaz pushed on past Cape Voltas, lost sight of land, found it again far to the east, but his sailors were frightened, and he could only persuade them to go on for three days more, just as Columbus did. He had not Columbus's good luck. The three days ended, and the shore still ran south, so they had to return. This was in 1484. Diaz only returned to fit out another expedition, and this time doubled the cape. He called it Cabo Tormen- toso, "the Cape of Tempests." But the king, John II., rightly understood the augury, and gave it the admirable name it has had ever since, — ^the Cape of Good Hope.' But for years it was Hope and nothing more. " King John began now at the other end. He sent two officers to the east, to gain such news as they could of the shape of Eastern Africa. One of them, named De Payva died. But Covilham, the other, visited Mada- gascar in Arab vessels, and sent home an account to King John. For himself, poor fellow, he was kept a prisoner in Abyssinia till 1520. So, you see, as early DA GAM A. 37 as 1490, they knew the general shape of Africa as far down as Madagascar on the east, while they had turned the Cape of Good Hope on the west. All there was left to discover was the little strip between. And, as I said, they knew that the Carthaginians had passed all around the continent. " One rather wonders that they waited so long before * trying the adventure.' But in fact it was 1497, before the King sent out the little fleet that succeeded. And then, dear Blanche, it was under your hero, Vasco da Gama. He certainly is a great discoverer, but he is a discoverer of something which was pretty well known before." " Like the discoverer of the source of Mink Brook ? " "Yes; but this is more important than that, per- haps. "Then you must remember, that when Da Gama and his people came to India, they came to countries of which Europe had known since Alexander's time. They found people who could speak Arabic, with whom they could talk. There was not the absolute fresh- ness in the discovery which Columbus and the Span- iards found in people who had never heard of Europe or Asia, or their arts, of their ships, their guns and powder, or their language." After this the talk became more general, and in one and another book the children marked and read the passages which are here copied. 38 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. DA GAMA'S DISCOVERY OF THE EAST INDIES. The same worthy King of Portugal, John IL, while he endeavored, by these his ambassadors, to gain a perfect knowledge of the state of the Indies by land, neglected not the prosecution of what had been so long labored with the same view at sea. It was to facilitate this design that he employed Bartholomew Diaz, one of his courtiers, and a person remarkable for great prudence, much skill in the art of navigation, as well as for invin- cible courage, to proceed still farther along the south coast of Africa ; which accordingly he did in the year i486, and executed his commission with equal conduct and success. He carried with him several negroes, who had been many years in his service, and whom, from time to time, he set on shore, well dressed, with a small quantity of goods, on purpose that they might inform the people of the country how well they had been used, and how kindly treated by the Portuguese. He like- wise set up crosses of stone, with the arms of Portugal engraven upon them, to assert his master's title to the countries by him discovered. At last, arriving in sight of a high cape, near which he met with very bad weather, he lost the company of his victualling bark ; upon which his crew mutinied, complaining that it was too much to endure at one time the hardships of the sea and of famine. But Captain Diaz represented to them that the former was not to be escaped by going back, and that the only means they had of preventing the latter was to proceed till they came to some place where they could get refreshments ] he prevailed upon them to double the cape, and to sail DON VASQUEZ DA GAM A. 39 a good way beyond it, to a place where he erected an- other pillar of stone ; and, having obtained a small sup- ply, he returned, and, in his passage homeward, met with his bark again, in which, of nine men that he had left, three only survived, and of these Ferdinand Co- lazza died with joy at the first sight of the captain. He continued his voyage safely to Lisbon, where he arrived in December, 1487, sixteen months and seven days after his setting out, having discovered above a thousand miles along the coast. He gave the king, his master, a very full account of all that had happened to him, and insisted particularly on the difficulty with which he had doubled that stu- pendous promontory, which, from the stormy sea about it, he thought fit to call Cabo Tormentoso^ that is, " the Tempestuous Cape ; '' but the king, who, from the lights he had received from Covillan's letters, knew how to form a right judgment of the importance of this dis- covery, styled it Cabo del Buena Esperanza^ or "the Cape of Good Hope," which name it has ever since re- tained ; for he saw clearly, from the agreement between these accounts, that the passage was now open, and that there wanted but one voyage more to finish what they had so much desired, namely, the finding a direct passage by sea to the East Indies. . . . The person chosen to command was Don Vasquez da Gama, a man of quality, who possessed all the talents necessary for such an employment. On the 9th of July, 1497, he embarked on board the "Gabriel," which was the admiral of this little fleet, of the burthen of one hundred and twenty tons, and the same day put to sea ; and after being exposed to continual storms, in which they frequently gave themselves over for lost, they 40 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. entered a large bay, which the men called Angra de Santa Elena, or ^'the Bay of St. Helena." They sailed from St. Helena with a southwest wind, on the 1 6th of November, and on the i8th in the even- ing came in sight of the Cape of Good Hope, which they doubled on the 20th, sounding their trumpets and engag- ing in several diversions, as expressions of their joy. As they coasted along the shore, they had the prospect of a very fine country, interspersed with woods and lawns, abounding with numerous herds of large and small cattle, and peopled with blacks, who resembled those of St. Helena. Da Gama, having at length run seventy leagues beyond the cape, arrived at another bay, to which he gave the name of Angra de San Bias, near which is a small island, where the ships lay to, to take in a supply of water. The land about this bay is very fertile, and abounds with elephants and fine oxen, used by the na- tives instead of horses. There were also a multitude of penguins, and a prodigious number of seals. A few days after their arrival there appeared about ninety of the inhabitants, some on the sands, and others on the mountains ; upon which the admiral landed with all his men well armed, and, drawing near the shore, threw upon the land little bells, which the negroes took up, and some came so nigh as to receive them out of his own hand, when, venturing on shore with his men, he exchanged some red nightcaps for ivory bracelets. A few days after, above two hundred blacks came down with twelve oxen and four sheep, and, on the Portuguese going on shore, they began to play upon four flutes, accompanied with several voices, which made no dis- agreeable music. The admiral, striking in with this humor, ordered the trumpets to sound, while his men NATAL AND DE LOS REYES. 41 danced along with the natives, and thus the day passed in mirth and feasting. Not long after, many more blacks, men and women, came again with cattle, of whom the Portuguese bought an ox ; but, perceiving some young negroes behind the bushes with weapons in their hands, the admiral suspected some treachery, and therefore ordered his people to retire to a place of greater security ; the blacks then went along the shore, keeping pace with the boats till they came to the place where the Portuguese had landed, and then joined themselves in a body, as if they intended to fight ; but the admiral being unwilling to hunt them, withdrew in his boats, only ordering two pieces of ord- nance to be shot off to frighten them ; at this they were so terrified, that they ran away in confusion, leav- ing their weapons behind ; but afterward, sending some of his men on shore to erect a pillar, on which were the King of Portugal's arms and cross, the negroes pulled it down before their faces. Da Gama left this place on the 8th of November, and soon after met with a dreadful storm. On Christ- mas day they saw land, which for that reason they called Tierra de Natal. After this they came to a river, which they called De los Reyes ^ or, "Of the Kings," from its being first seen on the day of Epiph- any. Here Da Gama left two men to inform them- selves of whatever was worthy of notice in the country, and to give him an account of what they had learned at his return. For this purpose he had some malefactors with him, whose punishments were changed for these dangers. Here he dealt for some ivory and provisions, so much to the satisfaction of the blacks, that their king came on board. 42 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. On the nth of January, again drawing near land, the men went in their boats along the coast to take a view of it, when they saw a great number of men and women who appeared to be quiet and civil people. The admi- ral then sent one of his men who was well versed in the languages of Africa, attended by another person, to pay his respects to the king, who received them with great civility, and dismissed them with presents. In return the admiral sent his Majesty a red jacket, a pair of stockings, and a cap of the same color, wdth a copper bracelet, which he received with pleasure, and in return promised to give the person who brought this present anything his country afforded, and invited the gentleman and his companion to his town. Da Gama having given him leave, this gentleman, wdiose name was Alonzo, went forward with the king, whose subjects beholding him on the road in his new habit, clapped their hands with signs of joy and admiration. On their entering the town, the king went round it, to give the inhabitants an opportunity of beholding his finery ; and then, taking Alonzo to his house, supped with him upon a hen and boiled millet. Here many of the negroes came to see Alonzo and his attendant ; and the next day they were sent back with some blacks laden with hens for the admiral, who returned them thanks, and called the place the Land of Good People. Departing from thence on the 15th of January, they proceeded along a low coast, full of very large and lofty trees, as far as Cape Corientes, or the Cape of Currents, proceeding fifty leagues beyond Sofala, without seeing that city. On the 24th they entered the mouth of a very large river, up which Da Gama, with several of the men, proceeded in their boats ; the land was low like the MELINDA. 43 former^ and abounded in tall trees laden with a variety of fruits ; and, proceeding farther, they found several boats with sails made of palm. The Portuguese were encouraged at seeing people who understood something of sailing, — a circumstance which they had not met with before on all these coasts. The natives came in their boats to the ships without fear or hesitation, and be- haved to the Portuguese with as much familiarity as if they had been old acquaintances. The admiral treated them kindly, gave them small bells, and other toys, and talked with them by signs, for none on board understood their language. They afterwards returned in their boats with others, bringing provisions, and more of the natives came along the waterside, among whom were some pretty women. On the third day two persons of rank came in their boats to visit the admiral. These had their aprons larger than the rest, and one of them wore on his head a handkerchief wrought with silk, and the other a green satin cap. Da Gama gave them a courteous reception, invited them to eat, and gave them apparel, with other things, but they seemed by their looks to set no value on them. However, it appeared from certain signs made by a young man, that they were of a distant country, and had seen as large ships as those they were then in ; and when they were landed, they offered some pieces of calico to sale. Da Gama rejoiced at these happy tokens, and all on board were elevated with hopes of soon reaching the treasures of India ; wherefore the admiral called this the River of Good Signs, and erected a pillar on which was carved a crucifix and under it the arms of Portugal. Here they also refitted their ships, and endeavored to cure the men who were sick of the scurvy. . . . 44 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, On the 5th of October Da Gama left this coast, hav- ing first ordered the vessel he had taken to be burned. He now steered for Melinda, but was exposed to great danger by the length of the passage, occasioned by storms, calms, and contrary winds, by which means the men became so dreadfully afflicted with the scurvy that there were not above sixteen men fit for labor in each ship. To prevent their overshooting Melinda, the ships came to an anchor every night ; but on their arriving at a village of Moors, within ten leagues of that city, there appeared eight large boats, filled with soldiers, steering directly toward the ships ; but the admiral firing upon them they soon tacked about and fled. At length he ar- rived at Melinda, where he again met with a most friendly reception, and was supplied with refreshments. He stayed there five days, and then sailed, taking with him the ambassador the King of Melinda had before prom- ised to send to Portugal ; and as the admiral had not a sufficient number of men to navigate the three ships, he burned the " St. Raphael," commanded by his brother. On the 27th of February Da Gama reached Zanzibar, a pretty large island, in six degrees south latitude, near which are two others, Pemba and Monsia, — all of them very fertile. The Prince of Zanzibar, though a Mahom- etan, entertained the Portuguese with great hospitality, and furnished them with a supply of fruit and fresh pro- visions. Da Gama steered from thence along the coast, and, passing Mozambique, took in wood and water at the Island of San Bias. On the 26th of April he doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and then steered for the Island of St. Jago ; but the two ships being separated by a violent storm, Nicholas Coello, who commanded the Berrio. being in haste to carry the news of the discovery THE RETURN, 45 to the king, steered directly for Lisbon, and on the loth of July put into Cuscais. The admiral, on his arrival at St. Jago, left his ship to be fitted up ; and hiring a caravel, arrived at Belem in September, 1499, after a voyage of two years and two months, in which he had lost above half his men. The king, overjoyed at his return, sent a nobleman and several gentlemen to conduct him to court, in the way to which he passed through crowds of spectators, and was received with extraordinary honors. For this service he was honored with the title of Don, a part of the king's arms was added to his, and an annual pen- sion of three thousand ducats was granted to him. Nicholas Coello was made a Fidalgo, and had an ap- pointment of one hundred ducats j and, in short, the king himself augmented his own title on account of this new discovery, vainly styling himself Lord of the Con- quest and Navigation of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and the Indies. Upon this occasion public thanksgivings were made throughout the kingdom for the success of the voy- age; to which succeeded feasts and entertainments; and those who had long represented these designs as im- practicable now grew ashamed of their opposition, and became the most zealous in recommending them. After the children had looked over this account of the voyage which they had found in the second vol- ume of "A New Collection of Voyages,"^ Uncle Fritz showed them another account which he had found in the publications of the Hakluyt Society, and from this Bedford read some of the parts which seemed the most interesting. 1 John Knox's Collection, London, 1767 4.6 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, THE VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA. The ships being equipped and ready, as I have said, one Sunday the king went with the queen, Dona Maria, to hear mass, which was said pontifically by the Bishop Calgadilha, who also made a discourse in praise of the voyage, and holy design of the king in regard to the new discovery which he was commanding to be made ; and he called upon the people to pray to the Lord that the voyage might be for his holy service, and for the exalt- ing of his holy faith, and for the increase of the good and honor of the kingdom of Portugal. When the mass was ended, at which the good brothers and their associ- ates were present richly dressed, and to whom the king showed great honor and favor as they stood close to the curtain, where also were the principal lords of the realm and gentlemen of the court, the king came out from the curtain, and spoke to the captains who placed them- selves on their knees before him, and they spoke to him saying : " Sire, the honor we are receiving from your Highness is so great, that with a hundred bodies and lives, which we might expend in your service, we never could repay the least part of it, since greater honors were never shown by a sovereign to his vassals than you have done us as the great prince, king, and lord that you are, with such magnanimity and honor that, if at this moment we should die, our lineage would remain in the highest degree of honor which is possible, only be- cause your Highness has chosen and sent us for this work, whilst you have so many and such noble vassals to whom to commit it ; for which we are already recom- pensed before rendering this service, and until we end FAREWELL. 47 our lives in performing it. For this we beg of the mercy of the Lord, that He direct us, and that He the Lord and your Highness, also may be served in some manner in this so great favor that has been shown us, as He knows that such is our desire ; and should we not be deserving to serve Him in this voyage, and so holy un- dertaking, may the Lord be pleased that we may pay with our lives for our shortcomings in the work. We promise your Highness that our lives will be the matters of least moment that we shall adventure in this so great favor that has been shown us, and that we will not return before your Highness with our lives in our bodies without bringing some certain information of that which your Highness desires.'' And they all again kissed the hands of the king and of the queen ; upon which the king came forth from the cathedral and went to his palace, which was then in the residence of the alcasbah in the castle. There went before him the captains, and before them the standard which was carried by their ensign in whom they trusted, and on arriving at the palace the king dis- missed them, and they again kissed his and the queen's hand. Vasco da Gama on a horse, with all the men of the fleet on foot, richly dressed in liveries, and accom- panied by all the gentlemen of the court, went down to the wharf on the bank, and embarked in their boats, and the standard went in that of Paulo da Gama. Then, taking leave of the gentlemen, they went to the ships, and on their arrival they fired all their artillery, and the ships were dressed out gayly with standards and flags, and many ornaments, and the royal standard was at once placed at the top of the mast of Paulo da Gama ; for so Vasco da Gama commanded, and, discharging all their artillery, they loosened the sails, and went beating 48 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. to windward on the river of Lisbon, tacking until they came to anchor at Belem, where they remained three days waiting for a wind to go out. There they made a muster of the crews, where all confessed and communi- cated. The king commanded that they should write down in a book all the men of each ship by name, with the names of their fathers, mothers, and the wives of the married men, and the places of which they were natives ; and the king ordered that this book should be preserved in the House of the Mines, in order that the payments which were due should be made upon their return, be- cause the king ordered that a hundred cruzados should be paid to each of the married men, for them to leave it to their wives, and forty cruzados to each of the single men, for them to fit themselves out with certain things ; for, as to provisions, they had got to lay them in, for the ships were full of them ; and to the two brothers a gratification of two thousand cruzados to each of them, and a thousand to Nicolas Coelho. When it was the day of our Lady of March (the 25th), all heard mass; then they embarked, and loosed the sails, and went forth from the river, the king coming out to accompany them in his boat, and addressing them all with blessings and good wishes he took leave of them, his boat lying on its oars until they disappeared, as it is shown in the painting of this city of Lisbon. Vasco da Gama went in the ship "Sam Rafael," and Paulo da Gama in the ship " Sam Gabriel," and Nicolas Coelho in the other ship, " Sam Miguel ; " in each ship there were as many as eighty men, officers and seamen, and the others of his family, servants and relations, all filled with the desire to undertake the labor that was fitting for each, and with great trust in the favors which they hoped for from the king on their return to Portugal. . . . DISCO URA CEMENT. 49 Having well ascertained this they stood out again to sea ; thus forcing the ships to windward, they went so far out to sea towards the south, that there was almost not six hours of sunlight in the day, and the wind was very powerful, so the sea was very fearful to see, with- out ever being smooth either by day or night ; but they always met with storms, so that the crews suffered much hardships. And after a month that they had run on this tack, they stood in to shore and went as long as they could, all praying to the Lord that they might have doubled beyond the land ; but when they again saw it, they were very sad, though they found themselves much advanced by the signs of the soundings which they had not before seen. Seeing that the coast ran out to sea, the masters and pilots were in great confusion, and doubtful of standing out again to sea, saying that that land went across the sea and had no end to it. This being heard of by Vasco da Gama (according, as it was, to the information he had from the Jew Qacuto), he told the pilots that they should not imagine such a thing, and that without doubt they would find the end of that land, and beyond it much sea and lands to run by, and he said to them : " I assure you that the cape is very near, and with another tack standing out to sea, when you return you will find the cape doubled.'' This Vasco da Gama said to encourage them, because he saw that they were much disheartened, and with the incHna- tion to wish to put back to Portugal. So he ordered them to put the ships about to sea, which they did much against their will ; for which reason Vasco da Gama de- termined to stand on this tack so long as to be able to double the end of the land ; and besought all not to take account of their labors, since for that purpose they had 4 50 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, ventured upon them; and that they should put their trust in the Lord that they would double the cape. Thus he gave them great encouragement, without ever sleeping or taking repose, but always taking part with them in hardship, coming up at the boatswain's pipe as they did. So they went on out to sea till they found it all broken up with the storm, with enormous waves and darkness. As the days were very short, it always seemed night ; the masts and shrouds were stayed, because with the fury of the sea the ships seemed every moment to be going to pieces. The crews grew sick with fear and hardship, because also they could not prepare their food, and all clamored for putting back to Portugal, and that they did not choose to die like stupid people who sought death with their own hands ; thus they made clamor and lamentation, of which there was much more in the other ships. But the captains excused them- selves, saying that they would do nothing except what Vasco da Gama did ; and he and his companions under- went great labor. As he was a very choleric man, at times with angry words he made them be silent, although he well saw how much reason they had at every moment to despair of their lives ; and they had been going for about two months on that tack, and the masters and pilots cried out to him to take another tack ; but the captain-major did not choose, though the ships were now letting in much water, by which their labors were doubled, be- cause the days were short and the nights long, which caused them increased fear of death ; and at this time they met with such cold rains that the men could not move. All cried to God for mercy upon their souls, for now they no longer took heed of their lives. It now THEY DOUBLE THE CAPE. 5 1 seemed to Vasco da Gama that the time was come for making another tack, and he comported himself very angrily, swearing that if he did not double the cape, he would stand out to sea again as many times until the cape was doubled, or there should happen whatever should please God. For which reason from fear of this the masters took much more trouble to advance as much as they could, and they took more heart on nearing the land, and escaping from the tempest of the sea; and all called upon God for mercy, and to give them guidance, when they saw themselves out of such great dangers. Thus approaching the land, they found their labor less, and the seas calmer, so they went on running for a long time, steering so as to make the land and to ease the ships, which they were better able to do at night when the captain slept, which the other ships did also, as they followed the lantern which Vasco da Gama carried ; at night the ships showed lights to one another so as not to part company. Seeing how much they had run and did not find land, they sailed larger so as to make it ; and as they did not find it, and the sea and wind were moderate, they knew that they had doubled the cape ; on which great joy fell upon them, and they gave great praise to the Lord on seeing themselves delivered from death. The pilots continued to sail more free, spread- ing all the sails ; and, running in this manner, one morn- ing they sighted some mountain peaks which seemed to touch the clouds ; at which their pleasure was so great that all wept with joy, and all devoutly on their knees said the Salve, . . . Whilst these things were happening, the wind did not shift its direction, but the sea being smoother the ships were more easy, though they let in so much water that 52 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, they never left off pumping. The captain-major saw this, and that the ships had an absolute need of repairs ; and also because they had no more water to drink, be- cause, with the tossing about in the storm, many barrels had broken and given way under such great pressure, he stood in to the land under sail, for the weather was moderate and was beginning to be favorable. All were praying to God for mercy, and that He would grant them a haven of safety ; which God was pleased to do in His mercy, for presently He showed them land, at which it seemed that all were resuscitated from the death which they looked upon as certain, if the ships were not repaired. After that the wind came free, and they sailed along the land for several days without find- ing where to put in; this was now in January of the year 1498. Thus they ran close to the land, with a careful lookout, for they did not dare to leave the land, from the peril in which the ships were from the great leakage. Proceeding in this way, one day they found themselves at dawn in the mouth of a great river, into which the captain-major entered, for he always went first ; and all entered, and found within a large bay sheltered from all winds, in which they anchored, and all exclaimed three times, " The mercy of the Lord God ! " for which reason they gave this river the name of the River of Mercy. Here they soon caught much good fish, with which the sick improved, as it was fresh food, and the water of the river was very good. Now, at this time, in all the ships there were not more than a hundred and fifty men, for all the rest had died. Soon after arriving at this place, the captain-major went to see his brother and Nicolas Coelho, and they conversed, relating their hardships ; and Nicolas Coelho related the treason which his men l^REASON. 53 were preparing, to take him prisoner and return to Por- tugal ; and they did not do it from the fear they had that the captain-major would follow after them, and, if he caught them, would have hung them all ; and they only waited for all to agree together to mutiny, and he had sought those feigned words which he had spoken, and it had pleased God that Vasco da Gama had understood them, so that, by his imprisoning his officers at once, all had remained secure. So all gave praise to the Lord for having delivered them from such great perils. Then they settled about refitting the ships, for they had all that was necessary for doing it. Although they had a beach and tides for laying the ships aground, for greater security it was ordered that they should be heeled over whilst afloat, and thus it was arranged for by all of them. While they were on the quarter-deck, Paulo da Gama entreated his brother to set the prisoners at lib- erty, which he did, setting free the sailors, and the mas- ter and pilot, with the condition that, if God should bring them back to Lisbon, when he went before the king, he would present them to him in the same manner in chains, not to do them any harm, but only that his difficulties might be credited, and for this he would give him greater favors ; at which all the crews felt much satisfaction. Afterwards they spoke with all the offi- cers, and arranged for careening the ships, and went to look at them. They found that there was no repairing the ship of Nicolas Coelho, as it had many of the knees and ribs broken. For that reason they at once decided to break it up ; and then they cut out its masts, and as much timber and planks of the upper works, which, with the yards and spars of the other ships lashed together and fastened, made a great frame which they put under 54 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. the side of the ship to raise it more out of the water ; for this purpose they then discharged out from captain- major's ship into that of his brother, which was brought alongside, all that they could of the stores and goods ; and everything heavy below decks they put on one side of the ship, which caused it to heel over very much, and with the timber under the side, and the tackle fitted to the main-mast, they canted the ship over on one side that they laid her keel bare ; and on the outer side they put planks, upon which all the crew got to work at the ship, some cleaning the planks from the growth of sea- weed, others extracting the calking, which was quite rotten, from the seams ; and the calkers put in fresh oakum and then pitched it over, for they had a stove in a boat where they boiled the pitch. The captains were occupied with their own work day and night, and gave much food and drink to the crews, so that they used such despatch that in one day and one night, by morn- ing, they had finished one side of the ship, very well exe- cuted, though with great labor in drawing out the water from the ship, which leaked very much lying thus on one side. When she was upright, they turned her over on the other side, and did the same work much better performed, because the ship did not leak so much ; and when it was completed and the ship upright, it was so sound and water-tight that for two days there was no water in the pump. Then they loaded it again with its stores, and transshipped to it the stores of the other ship, upon which they executed the before-mentioned calk- ing and repairs so that it became new. They then fitted them inside with several knees and ribs and inner planking and all that was requisite, with great perfec- tion, and collected the yards, spars, and all that they THEY BURN THE ''SAM MIGUELP 55 had need of belonging to the ship ''Sam Miguel''; and the captain-major took Nicolas Coelho on board of his ship, entertaining him well. They then took away from the ship much wood for their use, and beached the ship, and took away its rudder, and undid it, and stowed away its wood and iron works, in case of its being wanted for the other ships, because they had all been built of the same pattern and size, as a precaution that all might be able to take advantage of any part of them. Then they burned the ship in order to recover the nails, which were in great quantity, and a great advantage for other necessities which they met with later. . . . The king was staying at Sintrawhen there arrived one Arthur Rodriguez, a man married in the Isle of Terceira ; he had a caravel of his own ready to make a voyage to Algarve. He, seeing the ships come in, set sail without knowing whence they were coming, and so he passed by them under sail before they came to anchor, and asked whence they came, and they answered that they came from India. He at once made his course to Lisbon, where he arrived in four days, and entered Cascaes, and got into a small boat which was going ashore ; and he gave orders to a son of his, who came with him, not to let any one approach to communicate with his vessel, nor to say anything of the ships from India. Then Arthur Roiz, on reaching land, went at once with speed to Sin- tra, because the men of the skiff had told him that the king was there, and he set out and arrived there at one o'clock at night, and went to the king, who had just sat down at table to sup. Arthur Roiz took the king's hand and kissed it, saying, " Sire, I have kissed the hand of your Highness for the great favor which you will grant me for the so great and good news which I bring you. 56 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, It is four days since I set out from Terceira, where I left two ships from India, for as I was coming under sail in a caravel of mine, I passed by them and inquired, and they told me that they came from India : and as it was such good news, I did not choose that another should come first and be before me in gaining the re- ward which I hope your Highness will give me.'* The king was not able to continue hearing him, but went off at once to the chapel which is within the palace, where he recited his orisons, and gave great praises to the Lord for the so great favor that had been vouchsafed to him. Upon this there was great excitement, and all the nobles flocked to the palace to give the king joy of his great satisfaction. The king took Arthur Roiz as a gentleman of his household, and his son as a page of the chamber, and gave him a gratification of a hundred cruzados, which the king's purser gave to him at once. The king then said to the nobles that he would start before morning for Lisbon to receive further messages which would come following after this one, and, in case the ships came, the better to see them enter Lisbon. The king arrived there the next day at dinner-time, and another message reached him, which came to win the re- ward of good news, and which told the king all the news of how Vasco da Gama had arrived with his crews dead and sick, and that Paulo da Gama had thus arrived, and that he had died shortly after his arrival ; at which the king showed grief, and said, "I should greatly rejoice if Vasco da Gama had come before me with his satisfaction complete, so as not to deprive me of any portion of mine which I now enjoy." The king gave a reward to the messenger for what he related, which was that, as soon as they were prepared with what they required, the ships ARRIVAL AT LISBON. 57 would set out, because they came with great labor at the pumps, from which the seamen never desisted, for the ships had opened their seams with the calms which they met with off Guinea, and with the hard work at the pumps the crews had fallen sick and died, but that many people of the island were coming in the ships, and many vessels were coming with them, which would arrive with them at Lisbon. With this great pleasure the king waited until the ships arrived at the bar, where there were boats with pilots who were waiting for them, and who at once brought them in dressed out with flags, while the king was looking on from the House of Mines, which afterwards became the India House. The ships, on coming to anchor, fired a salute with their artillery, and the king sent immediately Jorge de Vasconcelos, overseer of the armory of Lisbon, a chief nobleman of his household, to visit Vasco da Gama, and to say to him that the king hoped his coming would be as happy as the pleasure which he himself felt on account of it ; but that the king's pleasure was much diminished by the great grief which he experienced for the death of his brother ; but seeing the great favor which the Lord had granted to him, and looking well at one circum- stance and the other, he ought to lay aside his grief, at which the king would be much pleased, and that he should disembark shortly. After this many friends and relations came to the ship to visit Vasco da Gama, and they entreated him much not to go before the king with such grief and mourning as he showed, and to have regard for the message which the king had sent. He consulted as to this with all his friends, and he dressed himself in a close-fitting tunic of silk {solid), and a rough barret-cap, which looked well, and he wore his beard 58 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, very long, for he had never cut it since he had departed from Lisbon. Vasco da Gama landed on the beach in front of the houses, where he was received by all the nobles of the court, and by the Count of Borba and the Bishop Calgadilha, and he went between those two be- fore the king, who, when he arrived, rose up from his chair and did him great honor. III. MAGALHAENS AND THE PACIFIC. BEDFORD had drawn out quite a large map of the world, on Mercator's projection. It had America on the east and Europe on the west, with the Pacific Ocean between them. Bedford said he thought this would clear his head. The maps generally put the Atlantic in the middle. But Bedford said he should try it the other way. "Perhaps," said Uncle Fritz, "the Pacific is to be the centre of the civilization of the future. The Mediterra- nean Sea has long since ceased to be the sea of the * middle of the world,' though that is what its name means. The Atlantic has been the Middle-of-the-World Sea for three centuries." Bedford was pleased at Uncle Fritz's interest in his map, and so he asked why the Pacific Ocean should not be the next middle of the world. " I do not know but it will be," said Uncle Fritz. " It is a subject on which I have thought a great deal. Here is this great energetic Australia, a country of large men and great possibilities; here are Chile, California, and Oregon ; and here is this very efficient Japan, a country which has done many things in the last sixty years which were never done before. 6o STORIES OF DISCOVERY, "On the other hand, China is badly behind, with a very poor race of men, who have a very poor language. ''Wise men will tell you that nothing can be done in China, with so poor a language. "And you must observe, on the map, that on the American side the large rivers flow into the Atlantic. " Now, though the Pacific Ocean is very large, it is men who win, not space. If you will measure from the ridge of the Rocky Mountains or the Andes eastward to these ridges in Asia and Africa, which part the Atlantic and Pacific basins, you will see that there is more room for men in the Atlantic basin than there is in the Pacific. " When your friend, Mr. Hale, finishes his * History of the Pacific Ocean and its Shores,' we shall know more about such things." "But to-day/' said Hester, "we are to know more about them. For it is Magalhaens who really discovers the Pacific, is it not ? " " Yes/' said Uncle Fritz. " And I think he is fairly a discoverer of your first class. Here they were, all per- suaded that Columbus had hit on the East Indies. He thought so. Thirty years after, Cortes thought so. Ma- galhaens undeceived Europe. He gave his life to his discovery. I think he is a great discoverer, and one of the great men. " He was born in Portugal. They do not really know where. He was of good family, and in young life was in the queen's household. Early in life he went out to the East Indies, and there he served in one of the Por- tuguese establishments. He came back in 15 12, with some complaints of mismanagement, which lost him the favor of the king. He had already conceived his plan of going to the East by the way of the West. FERDINAND MAGELLAN MAGALHAENS AND THE PACIFIC. 6 1 " When the King of Portugal repulsed him, he went to Spain and offered his plan and his service to Charles V. Charles encouraged him. Pope Alexander had already divided the world between the two crowns of Spain and Portugal, and Magalhaens explained to Charles that under this grant he could maintain claims in the East Indies. " After endless difficulties he sailed, Sept. 3, 1519, with five vessels and two hundred and thirty men in all, for Rio Janeiro, on the coast of Brazil. They wintered (be- tween March and September, but south of the equator) in a bay which he called the Bay of St. Juhan. Here they had a horrible mutiny, which Magalhaens sup- pressed. On the 24th of August, 1520, they sailed again. He gave orders that they should sail as far as 75° south, if they did not find the passage." " That was plucky," said Bedford in admiration. His map-drawing had taught him that nobody had ever gone so far, until our own time. " If in that space they did not find the strait, which he said he was sure existed, they were to go to the Moluc- cas by the Cape of Good Hope. "But, as you know, they did find it in latitude 52° south, or thereabouts. Magalhaens entered it on the i8th of October, and w^orked through it in twenty days. Many a seaman since has had worse luck, until the days of steam. Stephen Gomez, one of his captains, deserted him here ; but with three ships he sailed on. " Remember, that none of them knew how large the world was. All of them thought it much smaller than it is. There are maps of that time where the strait between Western Mexico and Japan, of which Marco Polo had told them, is not sixty miles across. 62 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. "And yet these fine fellows sailed and sailed and sailed. They lighted on the Ladrones, which they called 'The islands of Velas Latinas/ and a few days after, the great discovery was complete. They plunged into what they called the Archipelago of St. Lazarus. " This was the first which Europeans, whom they then called Christians, knew of our famous Philippine Islands. The voyage which Magalhaens made is for every reason the most celebrated in history, excepting the great first voyage by Columbus." After this little lecture by Uncle Fritz the children broke into groups and began reading. Here are some of their extracts to tempt the reader to look for more. " Uncle Fritz," said Sibyl, as they went in to supper, "does our game of Philippine, where you share a dou- ble almond with a friend, come from the Philippine Islands?" " Some people think so," said the Colonel. "I do." "Others think it is Philopoena (a friendly penalty), by a combination of very bad Greek with intelligible Latin." NAVIGATION AND VOYAGE WHICH FERNANDO DE MAGELHAESi MADE FROM SEVILLE TO MA- LUCO IN THE YEAR 1519. BY A GENOESE PILOT. He sailed from Seville on the tenth day of August of the said year, and remained at the bar until the twenty- first day of September ; and as soon as he got outside he 1 We follow the custom of all the volumes of this series, in taking the spelling of the particular authority cited. The spelling is often character- istic of the author, his country, or his time. Magellan is the Anglicized form of Magalhaens. ACROSS THE ATLANTIC, 63 Steered to the southward to make the Island of Teneriffe, and they reached the said island on the day of St. Michael, which was on the 29th of September. Thence he made his course to fetch the Cape Verd Islands, and they passed between the islands and the cape with- out sighting either the one or the other. Having got as far as this neighborhood, he shaped his course so as to make for Brazil ; and as soon as he sighted the other coast of Brazil he steered to the southeast along the coast as far as Cabo-frio, which is in twenty-three de- grees south latitude ; and from this cape he steered to the west a matter of thirty leagues to make the Rio de Janeiro, which is in the same latitude as Cabo-frio, and they entered the said Rio on the day of St. Lucy, which was the 13th of December, in which place they took in wood, and they remained there until the first octave of Christmas, which was the 26th of December of the same year. They sailed from this Rio de Janeiro on the 26th December, and navigated along the coast to make the Cape of St. Mary, which is in thirty-four degrees and two thirds ; as soon as they sighted it, they made their course west-northwest, thinking they would find a pas- sage for their voyage, and they found that they had got into a great river of fresh water, to which they gave the name of the River of St. Christopher, and it is in thirty- four degrees, and they remained in it till the 2d of February, 1520. He sailed from this River of St. Christopher on the 2d of the said month of February ; and they navigated along the said coast, and farther on to the south they discovered a point which is in the same river more to the south, to which they gave the name of Point St. Anthony ; it is in thirty-six degrees ; hence they ran to * 64 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. the southwest a matter of twenty-five leagues and made another cape, which they named Cape St. Apelonia, which is in thirty-six degrees ; thence they navigated to the west-southwest to some shoals, which they named the Shoals of the Currents, which are in thirty-nine degrees ; and thence they navigated out to sea, and lost sight of land for a matter of two or three days, when they again made for the land, and they came to a bay, which they entered and ran within it for the whole day, thinking that there was the outlet to Maluco, and when night came they found it was quite closed up, and in the same night they again stood out by the way which they had come in. This is in thirty-four degrees ; they named it the Bay of St. Matthew. They navigated from this Bay of St. Matthew along the coast until they reached another bay, where they caught many sea- wolves and birds ; to this they gave the name of the " Bay of Labors ; " it is in thirty-seven degrees ; here they were near losing the flagship in a storm. Thence they navigated along the said coast, and arrived on the last day of March of the year 1520 at the port of St. Julian, which is in forty-nine and one third degrees, and here they wintered, and found the day a little more or less than seven hours. In this port three of the ships rose up against the captain-major, their captains saying that they intended to take him to Castile in arrest, as he was taking them all to destruction. Here, through the exertions of the same captain-major, and the assistance and favor of the foreigners whom he carried with him, the captain- major went to the said three ships which were already mentioned, and there the captain of one of them was killed, who was the treasurer of the whole fleet, and PORT ST. JULIAN. 65 named Luis de Mendoga; he was killed in his own ship by stabs with a dagger by the chief constable of the fleet, who was sent to do this by Fernando de Magelhaes in a boat with certain men. The said three ships having thus been recovered, five days later Fer- nando de Magelhaes ordered Caspar de Queixada to be decapitated and quartered ; he was captain of one of the ships, and was one of those who had mutinied. In this port they refitted the ship. Here the captain- major made Alvaro de Mesquita, a Portuguese, captain of one of the ships the captain of which had been killed. There sailed from this port on the 24th of August four ships, for the smallest of the ships had been already lost ; he had sent it to reconnoitre, and the weather had been heavy, and had cast it ashore, where all the crew had been recovered, along with the merchandise, artillery, and fitting of the ship. They remained in this port in which they wintered, five months and twenty-four days. They sailed on the twenty-fourth day of the month of August of the said year from this port of St. Julian, and navigated a matter of twenty leagues along the coast, and so they entered a river which is called Santa Cruz, which is in fifty degrees, where they took in goods and as much as they could obtain ; the crew of the lost ship were already distributed among the other ships, for they had returned by land to where Fernando de Magelhaes was, and they continued collecting the goods which had remained there during August and up to the i8th of September, and there they took in water and much fish, which they caught in the river. . . . They sailed from this river of Santa Cruz on the i8th of October ; they continued navigating along the coast until the twenty-first day of the same month, October, 66 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. when they discovered a cape, to which they gave the name of Cape of the Virgins, because they sighted it on the day of the eleven thousand virgins ; it is in fifty-two degrees, a little more or less, and from this cape a matter of two or three leagues distance, they found themselves at the mouth of a strait. They sailed along the said coast within that strait which they had reached the mouth of ; they entered in it a little and anchored. Fernando de Magelhaes sent to discover what there was farther in, and they found three channels, that is to say, two more in a southerly direction and one traversing the country in the direction of Maluco, but at that time this was not yet known, only the three mouths were seen. The boats went thither and brought back word ; and they set sail and anchored at these mouths of the channels, and Fer- nando de Magelhaes sent two ships to learn what was within, and these ships went ; one returned to the cap- tain-major, and the other, of which Alvaro de Mesquita was captain, entered into one of the bays which was to the south, and did not return any more. Fernando de Magelhaes, seeing that it did not come back, set sail, and the next day he did not choose to make for the bays, and went to the south, and took another which runs northwest and southeast, and a quarter west and east. He left letters in the place from which he sailed, so that if the other ship returned it might make the course he left prescribed. After this they entered into the channel, which at some places has a width of three leagues, and two, and one, and in some places half a league, and he w^ent through as long as it was daylight, and anchored when it was night ; and he sent the boats, and the ships went after the boats, and they brought news that there was an outlet, for they already saw the THE STRAITS. 6/ great sea on the other side ; on which account Fer- nando de Magelhaes ordered much artillery to be fired for rejoicing j and before they went forth from this strait they found two islands, the first one larger, and the other nearer toward the outlet is the smaller one : and they went out between these islands and the coast on the other side, as it was deeper than on the other side. This strait is a hundred leagues in length to the outlet ; that outlet and the entrance are in fifty-two de- grees latitude. In the same book ^ the boys had found other accounts, from which they read several extracts. Ferdinand Magellan went to Castile to the port of Seville, where he married the daughter of a man of importance, with the design of navigating on the sea, because he was very learned in the art of pilots, which is that of the sphere. The emperor kept the House of Commerce in Seville, with the overseers of the treasury, with great powers, and much seafaring traffic, and fleets for abroad. Magellan, bold with his knowledge, and with the readiness which he had to annoy the King of Portugal, spoke to the overseers of the House of Com- merce, and told them that Malacca and Maluco, the islands in which cloves grew, belonged to the emperor on account of the demarcation drawn between them both [the Kings of Spain and Portugal], for which reason the King of Portugal wrongfully possessed these lands ; and that he would make this certain before all the doctors who might contradict him, and would pledge his head for it. The overseers replied to him, that they 1 " The First Voyage Round the W^orld by Magellan." Printed for the Hakluyt Society. 68 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, well knew that he was speaking truth, and that the em- peror also knew it, but that the emperor had no naviga- tion to that part, because he could not navigate through the sea within the demarcation of the King of Portugal. Magellan said to them : "• If you would give me ships and men, I would show you navigation to those parts, without touching any sea or land of the King of Por- tugal ; and if not they might cut off his head." The overseers, much pleased at this, wrote it to the emperor, who answered them that he had much pleasure in the speech, and would have much more in the deed ; and that they were to do everything to carry out his service, and the affairs of the King of Portugal, which were not to be meddled with ; rather than that everything should be lost. With this answer from the emperor, they spoke wdth Magellan, and became much more convinced, by what he said, that he would navigate and show a course outside the seas of the King of Portugal ; and that if they gave him the ships he asked for, and men and artillery, he would fulfil what he had said, and would discover new lands which were in the demarcation of the emperor, from which he would bring gold, cloves, cinnamon, and other riches. The overseers hearing this, with a great desire to render so great a service to the emperor as the discovery of this navigation, and to make this matter more certain, brought together pilots and men learned in the sphere, to dispute on the matter with Magellan, who gave such reasons to all that they all agreed with what he said, and affirmed that he was a very learned man. So the overseers at once made agreements with him, and arrangements, and powers, and regulations, which they sent to the emperor, who confirmed everything, reserving especially the naviga- THE EXPEDITION, 69 tion of the King of Portugal ; thus he commanded and prohibited and ordered that everything which Magellan asked for should be given him. On this account Magel- lan went to Burgos, where the emperor was, and kissed his hand ; and the emperor gave him a thousand cru- zados, alimony for the expenses of his wife whilst he was on his voyage, set down in the rolls of Seville ; and he gave him power of life and death over all persons who went in the fleet, of which he should be captain- major, with regard to which he assigned him large powers. So, on his return from Seville, they equipped for him five small ships, such as he asked for, equipped and armed as he chose, with four hundred men-at-arms, and they were laden with the merchandise which he asked for. The overseers told him to give the captain- cies, with regard to which he excused himself, saying that he was new in the country and did not know the men ; and that they should seek out men who would be good and faithful in the emperor's service, and who would rejoice to endure hardships in his service, and the bad life which they would have to go through in the voyage. The overseers were obliged to him for this, and held it to be good advice, and decided to inform the captains that they might make, and the crews that they might take, of the powers which he had received from the emperor. This they did, and they sought in Seville for trustworthy men for captains, who were Juan de Cartagena, Luis de Mendoga, Juan Serrano, Pero de Quesada. This fleet having been fitted out, and the crew paid for six months, he sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda in August of the year 1519. . . . From this place [Rio de Janeiro] they went on sailing until they reached the Cape of Santa Maria, which Joan 70 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, of Lisbon had discovered in the year 1514; thence they went to the river San Julian. While they were here, taking in water and wood, Juan de Cartagena, who was sub-captain-major, agreed with the other captains to rise up, saying that Magellan had got them betrayed and en- trapped. As they understood that Caspar de Quesada was a friend of Magellan's, Juan de Cartagena got into his boat at night, with twenty men, and went to the ship of Caspar Quesada, and went in to speak to him, and took him prisoner, and made a relation of his captain of the ship, in order that all three might go at once on board Magellan and kill him, and after that they would reduce the ship of Juan Serrano, and would take the money and goods, which they would hide, and would return to the emperor, and would tell him that Magellan had got them entrapped and deceived, having broken faith with his instructions, since he was navigating in the seas and countries of the King of Portugal ; for which deed they would get first a safe-conduct from the emperor. So they arranged matters for their treason, which turned out ill for them. Magellan had some suspicion of this matter, and be- fore this should happen he sent his skiff to the ships to tell the captains that the masters were to arrange their ships for beaching them to careen them ; and with this pretext he warned a servant of his to notice what the captains answered. When this skiff came to the revolted ships, they did not let it come alongside, saying that they would not execute any orders except those of Juan de Cartagena, who was their captain-major. The skiff having returned with this answer, Magellan spoke to Ambrosio Fernandes, his chief constable, a valiant man, and gave him orders what he was to do, and to go THE MUTINY CRUSHED, 71 secretly armed ; and he sent a letter to Luis de Mendoga by him, with six men in the skiff, whom the chief con- stable selected. And the current set toward the ships, and Magellan ordered his master to bend a long hawser, with which he might drop down to the ships, if it suited him. All being thus arranged, the skiff went, and com- ing alongside of Luis de Mendoga, they would not let him come on board. So the chief constable said to the captain that it was weakness not to bid him enter, as he was one man alone, who was bringing a letter. Upon which the captain bade him enter. He came on board, and giving him the letter, took him in his arms, shout- ing, " On behalf of the emperor, you are arrested ! " At this the men of the skiff came on board with their swords drawn ; then the chief constable cut the throat of Luis de Mendoga with a dagger, for he held him thrown down under him, for so Magellan had given him orders. Upon this a tumult arose, and Magellan, hear- ing it, ordered the hawser to be paid out, and with his ship dropped down upon the other ships, with his men under arms and the artillery in readiness. On reaching the ship of Mendoga, he ordered six men to be hung at the yard-arms, who had risen up against the chief con- stable, and these were seized upon by the sailors of the ship, of which he at once made captain Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese, and a friend of his \ and he ordered the corpse of Mendoga to be hung up by the feet, that they might see him from the other ships. He then ordered Barbosa to prepare the men for going and boarding one of the other ships ; and to avoid doing the harm which it was in its power to have done, and since he was a Portu- guese, and the crews belonged to the emperor, he used a stratagem, and spoke secretly to a sailor whom he 72 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, trusted, who fled to the ship of Cartagena, where, at night, when the current set for Magellan's ship, which was astern, the sailor, seeing his opportunity, cut the cable or loosed the ship of Cartagena, so that it drifted upon that of Magellan, who came up, shouting, " Trea- son ! treason ! '' Upon which he entered the ship of Cartagena, and took him and his men prisoners, and made captain of the ship one Alvaro de Mesquita, whom Cartagena had arrested and put in irons, because he found fault with him for the mutiny which he was mak- ing. Seeing this, the other ship at once surrendered, He ordered Cartagena to be quartered, having him pub- licly cried as a traitor ; and the body of Luis de Mendoga also was quartered ; and he ordered the quarters and the executed men to be set on shore, spitted on poles. So the Castilians had great fear of him, for he kept the mutineers prisoners in irons, and set to the pumps, dur- ing three months that he remained in this river^ in which he careened and refitted his vessel very well. When he was about to set sail, he ordered the prison- ers to be set at liberty, and pardoned them, and he sent them to go along the shore, following the bank of tlie river until they found the headland from which they could see the sea on the other side ; and whoever re- turned to him with this news he would give him a hun- dred ducats as a reward for good news. These men went for more than forty leagues, and returned without news ; and they brought back two men, fifteen spans high, from a village which they found. He then sent Serrano, because his vessel was the smallest, to go along the river to discover its extremity ; and he went with a strong current which carried him without wind. And, going along thus, his ship grounded on some rocks, on EXPEDITION TO MA TAN. 73 which it was lost, and the boat returned laden with the crew. Magellan sent the boats thither, and they saved everything, so that only the hull was lost. . . . THE DEATH OF MAGELLAN AND THE VOYAGE HOME. Friday, the 26th of April (152 1), Zula, who was one of the principal men, or chiefs, of the Island of Matan, sent to the captain a son of his with two goats to make a pres- ent of them, and to say that if he did not do all that he had promised, the cause of that was another chief named Silapulapu, who would not in any way obey the King of Spain, and had prevented him from doing so j but that if the captain would send him the following night one boat full of men to give him assistance, he would fight and subdue his rival. On the receipt of this message, the captain decided to go himself with three boats. We entreated him much not to go to this en- terprise in person ; but he, as a good shepherd, would not abandon his flock. We set out from Tubu at midnight. We were sixty men, armed with corselets and helmets ; there were with us the Christian king, the prince, and some of the chief men, and many others divided among twenty or thirty balangai. We arrived at Matan three hours before daylight. The captain, before attacking, wished to at- tempt gentle means, and sent on shore the Moorish merchant to tell those islanders who were of the party of Silapulapu that, if they would recognize the Christian king as their sovereign, and obey the King of Spain, and pay us the tribute which had been asked, the cap- tain would become their friend, otherwise we should 74 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. prove how our lances wounded. The islanders were not terrified ; they replied that if we had lances, so also had they, although only of reeds, and wood hardened with fire. They asked, however, that we should not attack them by night, but wait for daylight, because they were expecting reinforcements, and would be in greater num- ber. This they said with cunning, to excite us to attack them by night, supposing that we were ready ; but they wished this, because they had dug ditches between their houses and the beach, and they hoped that we should fall into them. We, however, waited for daylight : we then leaped into the water up to our thighs, for, on account of the shallow water and the rocks, the boat could not come close to the beach^ and we had to cross two good cross- bow shots through the water before reaching it. We were forty-nine in number; the other eleven remained in charge of the boats. When we reached land, we found the islanders, fifteen hundred in number, drawn up in three squadrons ; they came down upon us with terrible shouts, two squadrons attacking us on the flanks, and the third in front. The captain then divided his men in two bands. Our musketeers and cross-bowmen fired for half an hour from a distance, but did nothing, since the bullets and arrows, though they passed through their shields made of thin wood, and perhaps wounded their arms, yet did not stop them. The captain shouted not to fire, but he was not listened to. The islanders, seeing that the shots of our guns did them little harm, would not retire, but shouted more loudly, and springing from one side to the other to avoid our shots, they at the same time drew nearer to us, throwing arrows, jave- lins, spears hardened in fire, stones, and even mud, so DEATH OF MAGELLAN. 75 that we could hardly defend ourselves. Some of them cast lances pointed with iron at the captain-general. He then, in order to disperse this multitude and to terrify them, sent some of our men to set fire to their houses ; but this rendered them more ferocious. Some of them ran to the fire, which consumed twenty or thirty houses, and there killed two of our men. The rest came down upon us with greater fury ; they perceived that our bodies were defended, but that our legs were ex- posed, and they aimed at them principally. The cap- tain had his right leg pierced by a poisoned arrow, on which account he gave orders to retreat by degrees ; but almost all our men took to precipitate flight, so that there remained hardly six or eight of us with him. We were oppressed by the lances and stones which the en- emy hurled at us, and we could make no more resistance. The bombards which we had in the boats were of no assistance to us, for the shoal water kept them too far from the beach. We went thither^ retreating little by little, and still fighting, and we had already got to the distance of a cross-bow shot from the shore, having the water up to our knees, the islanders following and pick- ing up again the spears which they had already cast, and they threw the same spear five or six times ; as they knew the captain, they aimed especially at him, and twice they knocked the helmet off his head. He, with a few of us, like a good knight, remained at his post without choosing to retreat further. Thus we fought for more than an hour, until an Indian succeeded in thrusting a cane lance into the captain^s face. He then, being irritated, pierced the Indian's breast with his lance, and left it in his body, and, trying to draw his sword, he was unable to draw it more than half way, on ;^6 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, account of a javelin wound which he had received in the right arm. The enemies, seeing this, all rushed against him, and one of them with a great sword, like a great scimetar, gave him a great blow on the left leg, which brought the captain down on his face; then the Indians threw themselves upon him, and ran him through with lances and scimetars, and all the other arms which they had, so that they deprived of life our mirror, light, com- fort, and true guide. Whilst the Indians were thus over- powering him, several times he turned round towards us to see if we were all in safety, as though his obstinate fight had no other object than to give an opportunity for the retreat of his men. We who fought to extremity, and who were covered with wounds, seeing that he was dead, proceeded to the boats, which were on the point of going away. This fatal battle was fought on the 27th of April of 152 1, on a Saturday, — a day which the captain had chosen himself, because he had a special devotion to it. There perished with him eight of our men, and four of the Indians, who had become Chris- tians ; we had also many wounded, amongst whom I must reckon myself. The enemy lost only fifteen men. He died ; but I hope that your illustrious highness will not allow his memory to be lost, so much the more since I see revived in you the virtue of so great a captain, since one of his principal virtues was Constance in the most adverse fortune. In the midst of the sea he was able to endure hunger better than we. Most versed in nau- tical charts, he knew better than any other the true art of navigation, of which it is a certain proof that he knew by his genius and his intrepidity, without any one having given him the example, how to attempt the circuit of the globe, which he had almost completed. • . . ARRIVAL OF MALUCO, yy Wednesday, the 6th of November, having passed be- yond these two islands, we discovered four other rather higher islands at a distance of fourteen leagues towards the east. The pilot who had remained with us told us that these were the Maluco Islands, for which we gave thanks to God, and to comfort ourselves we discharged all our artillery. It need not cause wonder that we were so much rejoiced, since we had passed twenty-seven months less two days always in search of Maluco, wan- dering for that object among an immense number of islands. But I must say that near all these islands the least depth that we found was one hundred fathoms ; for which reason attention is not to be given to all that the Portuguese have spread, according to whom the Islands of Maluco are situated in seas which cannot be navi- gated on account of the shoals, and the dark and foggy atmosphere. Friday, the 8th of November of 152 1, three hours before sunset, we entered a port of the island called Tadore, and having gone near the shore, we cast anchor in twenty fathoms, and discharged all our artillery. Next day the king came to our ships in a prahu, and went round them. We w^ent to meet him in a boat to show him honor, and he made us enter his prahu and sit near him. He was sitting under a silk umbrella, which sheltered him. In front of him was his son with the royal sceptre; there were also two men with gold vases to give him water for his hands, and two others with gilt caskets full of betel. The king gave us a welcome, and said that a long time back he had dreamed that some ships were coming to Maluco from distant countries, and that, to assure himself with respect to this, he had examined the moon, 78 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, and he had seen that they were really coming, and that indeed they were our ships. After that he came on board our ships, and we all kissed his hand ; we then conducted him to the poop, but he, in order to avoid stooping, would not enter the cabin except by the upper opening. We made him sit down on a chair of red vel- vet, and placed on him a Turkish robe of yellow velvet. In order to do him more honor we sat down before him on the ground. When he had heard who we were, and what was the object of our voyage, he said that he and all his people were well content to be the most faithful friends and vassals of the King of Spain ; that he re- ceived us in this island as his own sons ; that we might go on shore and remain there as in our own houses ; and that his island for the future should not be named Tadore, but Castile, in proof of the great love he bore to the king our master. Then we presented to him the chair on which he sat, and the robe which we had put on him, a piece of fine linen, four ells of scarlet cloth, a robe of brocade, a cloth of yellow damask, a piece of the whitest Cambay linen, two caps, six strings of glass beads, twelve knives, three large mirrors, six scissors, six combs, some gilt goblets, and other things. We gave to his son an Indian cloth of gold and silk, a large mir- ror, a cap, and two knives. To each of the nine chief men of his suite we made a present of a piece of silk, a cap, and two knives; and to many others of his suite we made a present, to one of a cap, to another of a knife, until the king told us not to give any more presents. He then said that he had got nothing worthy to be sent as a present to our king, unless he sent himself, now that he considered him as his lord. He invited us to come closer to the city ; and if any THE KING OF MA LUC O. 79 one attempted to come on board the ships at night, he told us to fire upon him with our guns. He came out of the stern cabin by the same way by which he had entered it, without ever bending his head. At his de- parture we fired all our cannon. This king is a Moor, of about forty-five years of age, rather well made, and of a handsome presence. He is a very great astrologer. His dress consisted of a shirt of very fine white stuff, with the ends of the sleeves embroidered with gold, and a wrapper which came down from his waist almost to the ground. He was bare- footed; round his head he had a silk veil, and over that a garland of flowers. He is named Raja Sultan Manzor. On the loth of November, a Sunday, we had another conversation with the king, who wished to know how long a time we had been absent from Spain, and what rations the king gave to each of us ; and we told him all this. He asked us for a signature of the king and a royal standard, since he desired that both his Island of Tadore, and also that of Taranete (where he intended to have his nephew, named Calanogapi, crowned king), should become subject to the King of Spain, for whose honor he w^ould fight to the death ; and if it should hap- pen that he should be compelled to give way, he would take refuge in Spain with all his family, in a new junk which he was having constructed, and would take with him the royal signature and standard. He begged us to leave with him some of our men, who would always keep alive his recollection of us and of our king, as he would more esteem having some of us with him than our merchandise, which would not last him a long time. Seeing our eagerness to take cloves 80 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, on board, he said that for that purpose he would go to an island called Bachian, where he hoped to find as much of them as were wanted, since in his island there was not a quantity sufficient of dry cloves to load the two ships. On that day there was no traffic, because it was Sunday. The holiday of these people is on Friday. . . . Wednesday morning everything was prepared for our departure from Maluco. The kings of Tadore, of Giai- lolo, and of Bachian, and a son of the King of Tarenete had come to accompany us as far as the Island of Mare. The ship " Victoria " made sail and stood out a little, waiting for the ship " Trinity '' ] but she had much diffi- culty in getting up the anchor, and meanwhile the sailors perceived that she was leaking in the hold. Then the *' Victoria '' returned to anchor in her former position. They began to discharge the cargo of the " Trinity " to see if the leak could be stopped, for it was perceived that the water came in with force as through a pipe ; but we were never able to find out at what part it came in. All that day and the next we did nothing else but work at the pumps, but without any advantage. Hearing this, the King of Tadore came at once to the ships, and occupied himself with us in searching for the leak. For this purpose he sent into the sea five of his men, who were accustomed to remain a long time under the water ; and although they remained more than half an hour, they could not find the fissure. As the water inside the ship continually increased, the king, who was as much affected by it as we were, and lamenting this misfortune, sent to the end of the island for three other men, more skilful than the first at remaining under water. He came with them early the next morning. These men dived under water with their hair loose, thinking PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE. 8 1 that their hair, attracted by the water which penetrated into the ship, would indicate to them the leak; but though they remained more than an hour in the water, they did not find it. The king, seeing that there was no remedy for it, said with lamentation, " Who will go to Spain to take news of me to the king our lord ? " We answered him that the "Victoria'' would go there, and would sail at once, to take advantage of the east winds, which had already commenced. The " Trinity,'' meanwhile, would be refitted and would wait for the west winds and go to Darien, which is on the other side of the sea, in the country of Diucatan. The king approved our thoughts, and said that he had in his service two hundred and twenty-five carpenters who would do all the work under the direction of our men, and that those who should re- main there would be treated as his own children ; and he said this with so much emotion that he moved us all to tears. We who were on board the "Victoria," fearing that she might open, on account of the heavy cargo and the long voyage, lightened her by discharging sixty hundred- weight of cloves, which we had carried to the house where the crew of the " Trinity " were lodged. Some of our own crew preferred to remain at Maluco rather than go with us to Spain, because they feared that the ship could not endure so long a voyage, and because, mindful of how much they had suffered, they feared to die of hunger in mid-ocean. Saturday, the 21st of December, day of St. Thomas the Apostle, the King of Tadore came to the ships and brought us the two pilots, whom we had already paid to conduct us out of these islands. They said that the weather was then good for sailing at once ; but, having 6 82 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. to wait for the letters of our companions who remained behind, and who wished to write to Spain, we could not sail till mid-day. Then the ships took leave of one another by a mutual discharge of bombards. Our men accompanied us for some distance with their boat, and then with tears and embraces we separated. Juan Car- valho remained at Tadore with fifty-three of our men ; we were forty-seven Europeans and thirteen Indians. The king's governor came with us as far as the Island of Mare ; we had hardly arrived there when four prahus laden with wood came up, which in less than an hour we got on board. We then took the southwest course. . . . In order to double the Cape of Good Hope, we went as far as 42° south latitude, and we remained off that cape for nine weeks, with the sails struck on account of the western and northwestern gales which beat about our bows with fierce squalls. The Cape of Good Hope is in 34° 30' south latitude, sixteen hundred leagues distant from the Cape of Malacca, and it is the largest and most dangerous cape in the world. Some of our men, and among them the sick, would have liked to land at a place belonging to the Portuguese called Mozambique, both because the ship made much water, and because of the great cold which we suffered ; and much more because we had nothing but rice and water for food and drink, all the meat of which we had made provision having putrefied, for the want of salt had not permitted us to salt it. But the greater number of us, prizing honor more than life itself, decided on at- tempting at any risk to return to Spain. At length, by the aid of God, on the 6th of May we passed that terrible cape, but we were obliged to ap- proach it within only five leagues distance, or else we ARRIVAL AT CAPE VERP ISLANDS. 83 should never have passed it. We then sailed towards the northwest for two whole months without ever taking rest ; and in this short time we lost twenty-one men, be- tween Christians and Indians. We made then a curi- ous observation on throwing them into the sea ; that was, that the Christians remained with the face turned to the sky, and the Indians with the face turned to the sea. If God had not granted us favorable weather, we should have all perished with hunger. Constrained by extreme necessity, we decided on touching at the Cape Verd Islands, and on Wednesday, the 9th of July, we touched at one of those islands named St. James's. Knowing that we were in an enemy's country, and amongst suspicious persons, on sending the boat ashore to get provision of victuals, we charged the seamen to say to the Portuguese that we had sprung our foremast under the equinoctial line (although this misfortune had happened at the Cape of Good Hope) and that our ship was alone, because whilst we tried to repair it, our captain-general had gone with the other two ships to Spain. With these good words, and giving some of our merchandise in exchange, we obtained two boat-loads of rice. In order to see whether we had kept an exact account of the days, we charged those who went ashore to ask what day of the week it was, and they were told by the Portuguese inhabitants of the island that it was Thurs- day, which was a great cause of wondering to us, since with us it was only Wednesday. We could not persuade ourselves that we were mistaken ; and I was more sur- prised than the others, since, having always been in good health, I had every day, without intermission, written down the day that was current. But we were afterwards 84 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. advised that there was no error on our part, since, as we had always sailed towards the west, following the course of the sun, and had returned to the same place, we must have gained twenty-four hours, as is clear to any one who reflects upon it. The boat, having returned for rice a second time to the shore, was detained, with thirteen men who were in it. As we saw that, and, from the movement in certain caravels, suspected that they might wish to capture us and our ship, we at once set sail. We afterwards learned, some time after our return, that our boat and men had been arrested, because one of our men had discovered the deception, and said that the captain- general was dead, and that our ship was the only one remaining of Magellan's fleet. At last, when it pleased Heaven, on Saturday, the 6th of September of the year 1522, we entered the Bay of San Lucar ; and of sixty men who composed our crew when we left Maluco, we were reduced to only eighteen, and these for the most part sick. Of the others, some died of hunger, some had run away at the Island of Timor, and some had been condemned to death for their crimes. From the day when we left this Bay of San Lucar until our return thither, we reckoned that we had run more than fourteen thousand four hundred and sixty leagues, and we had completed going round the earth from east to west. Monday, the 8th of September, we cast anchor near the mole of Seville, and discharged all the artillery. Tuesday, we all went in shirts and barefoot, with a taper in our hands, to visit the shrine of St. Maria of Victory, and of St. Maria de Antigua. END OF THE VOYAGE, 85 Then, leaving Seville, I went to Valladolid, where I presented to his Sacred Majesty Don Carlos, neither gold nor silver, but things much more precious in the eyes of so great a sovereign. I presented to him, among other things, a book written by my own hand of all the things that had occurred day by day in our voyage. I departed thence as I was best able, and went to Portu- gal, and related to King John the things which I had seen. Returning through Spain, I came to France, where I presented a few things from the other hemi- sphere to Madam the Regent, mother of the most Chris- tian King Don Francis. Afterwards I turned towards Italy, where I established forever my abode, and de- voted my leisure and vigils to the very illustrious and noble lord, Philip de Villiers Lisleadam, the very worthy grand master of Rhodes. The Chevalier, Anthoyne Pigaphete. IV. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. *- T TNCLE FRITZ," said Alice, as they came into V-^' the hall, " I was for coming out by a new way. We took the Brookline train, and walked across by Sewell Street. Fergus and Walter thought it a very wild adventure ; but I told them I had pirate's blood in me. Am I not a Drake, if I go back far enough into history? And was he not pretty much what is now called a pirate ? " Uncle Fritz was delighted with her remembering any- thing about her ancestry. He had told her that she was descended from Hawkins, who, so far as England went, invented the slave-trade. That great and good Queen Elizabeth gave him for his cognizance " Three Moors' heads with a chain over three gold bezants," — a coat-of-arms which gives a good idea of the philanthropy and the eye to business of England in that day. Alice had mixed up Hawkins with Drake ; and he explained this to her. " I wish any of us had Drake blood," he said. " Oddly enough, the part of the United States first cer- tainly taken possession of in the name of an English sovereign seems to be California, — away there on the Pacific. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, 87 " Sebastian Cabot seems to have sailed down the coast, and perhaps took possession for England. But of that discovery there is only the most vague account. The French and Spanish discoverers took Florida and Carolina for their sovereigns. But the first English act of possession of which we have real knowledge is Drake's in California. " We have come down to Drake's time, and I have marked some passages for to-day. He discovered the coast of Oregon, and I think he entered San Francisco Bay.'' The boys and girls had found several places where they had read up Drake, and Walter began by reading out of THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED BY SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, CAREFULLY COLLECTED OUT OF THE NOTES OF MASTER FRANCIS FLETCHER, PREACHER IN THIS IMPLOYMENT. Ever since Almighty God commanded Adam to sub- due the earth, there have not wanted in all ages some heroical spirits which, in obedience to that high man- date, either from manifest reason alluring them, or by secret instinct inforcing them thereunto, have expended their wealth, imployed their times, and adventured their persons to find out the true circuit thereof. Of these, some have endeavored to effect this their purpose by conclusion and consequence, drawn from the proportion of the higher circles to this nethermost globe, being the centre of the rest. Others, not con- tented with school points and such demonstrations (for that a small error in the beginning, growing in the pro- gress to a great inconvenience), have added thereunto 88 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, their own history and experience. All of them in reason have deserved great commendation of their own ages, and purchased a just renown with all posterity. For if a surveyor of some few lordships, whereof the bounds and limits were before known, worthily deserve his re- ward, not only for his travel, but for his skill also in measuring the whole and every part thereof^ how much more above comparison are their famous travels by all means possible to be eternized, who have bestowed their studies and endeavor to survey and measure this globe almost immeasurable ? Neither is here that difference to be objected, which in private possessions is of value : Whose land survey you ? Forasmuch as the main ocean by right is the Lord's alone, and by nature left free for all men to deal withal, as very sufficient for all men's use, and large enough for all men's industry. And therefore that voyage, accompanied with happy success, which that thrice rare and thrice worthy cap- tain, Francis Drake, achieved in first turning up a furrow about the whole world, doth not only overmatch the ancient Argonauts, but also outreacheth in many respects that noble mariner Magellanus, and by far sur- passeth his crowned victory. But hereof let posterity judge. It shall for the present be deemed a sufficient dis- charge of duty to register the true and whole history of that his voyage, with as great indifferency of affectation as a history doth require, and with the plain evidence of truth, as it was left recorded by some of the chief and divers other actors in that action. The said Captain Francis Drake, having in a former voyage, in the years '72 and '73 (the description whereof is already imparted to the view of the world), had a DRAKE'S FLEET. 89 sight, and only a sight, of the South Atlantic,^ and there- upon either conceiving a new, or renewing a former, de- sire of sailing on the same in an English bottom, he so cherished henceforward this his noble desire and resolu- tion in himself, that, notwithstanding he was hindered for some years, partly by secret envy at home, and partly by public service for his prince and country abroad (whereof Ireland under Walter, Earl of Essex, gives honorable tes- timony), yet against the year 1577 by gracious commis- sion of his sovereign, and with the help of divers friends (adventurers), he had fitted himself with five ships. 1. The "Pelican," admiral, burthen 100 tons. Cap- tain-General Francis Drake. 2. The " Elizabeth," vice-admiral, burthen 80 tons. Captain John Winter. 3. The " Marigold," a bark of 30 tons. Captain John Thomas. 4. The " Swan," a flyboat of 50 tons. Captain John Chester. 5. The " Christopher," a pinnace of 15 tons. Captain Thomas Moore. These ships he manned with one hundred and sixty- four able and sufficient men, and furnished them also with such plentiful provision of all things necessary as so long and dangerous a voyage did seem to require ; and amongst the rest with certain pinnaces ready framed, but carried aboard in pieces, to be new set up in smoother water, when occasion served. Neither had he omitted to make provision also for ornament and 1 It may interest the reader to look up Drake's former voyages. Ac- counts may be found in Hakluyt and also in Burroughs's " Life of Drake." It was on the excursion to Nombre de Dios that Drake saw the South Sea from a tree in the Isthmus of Darien. go STORIES OF DISCOVERY. delight, carrying to this purpose with him expert musi- cians, rich furniture (all the vessels of his table, yea, many belonging even to the cook-room being of pure silver), and divers shews of all sorts of curious work- manship, whereby the civility and magnificence of his native country might amongst nations whithersover he should come, be the more admired. Being thus appointed, we set sail out of the Sound of Plymouth about five of the clock in the afternoon, November 15, of the same year [1577], and running all that night southwest, by the morning were come as far as the Lizard, where meeting the wind at southwest (quite contrary to our intended course) we were forced, with our whole fleet, to put into Falmouth. The next day, toward evening, there arose a storm, continuing all that day and the night following (espe- cially between ten of the clock in the forenoon and five in the afternoon) with such violence that, though it were in a very good harbor, yet two of our ships, namely, the admiral (wherein our general himself went) and the "Marigold," were fain to cut their main-masts by board; and for the repairing of them, and many other damages in the tempest sustained (as soon as the weather would give leave), to bear back to Plymouth again, where we all arrived the thirteenth day after our first departure thence. Whence (having in few days supplied all defects), with happier sails we once more put to sea Dec. 13, 1577. The other extracts came chiefly from the boys' beloved Hakluyt. THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN. 9 1 DRAKE^S VOYAGE IN THE PACIFIC. The twenty-first day we entered the strait, which we found to have many turnings, and as it were shiftings up, as if there were no passage at all ; by means whereof we had the wind often against us, so that some of the fleet recovering a cape or point of land others should be forced to turn back again, and to come to anchor where they could. In this strait there be many fair harbors, with store of fresh water, but yet they lack their best commod- ity; for the water is there of such a depth that no man shall find ground to anchor in, except it be in some narrow river, or cover, or between some rocks, so that if any extreme blasts or contrary winds do come (whereunto the place is much subject) it carrieth with it no small danger. The land on both sides is very huge and mountainous, the lower mountains whereof, although they be mon- strous and wonderful to look upon for their height, yet there are others which in height exceed them in a strange manner, reaching themselves above their fellows so high, that did appear there regions of clouds. These mountains are covered with snow. At both the southerly and easterly parts of the strait there are islands among which the sea hath his indraught into the straits, even as it hath in the main entrance of the strait. The strait is extreme cold, with frost and snow con- tinually. The trees seem to stoop with the burden of the weather, and yet are green continually, and many good and sweet herbs do very plentifully grow and in- crease under them. 92 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. The breadth of the strait is in some places a league, in some other places two leagues and three leagues, and in some others four leagues, but the narrowest part has a league over. The 24th of August we arrived at an island in the straits, where we found great store of fowl which could not fly, of the bigness of geese, whereof we killed in less than one day three thousand, and victualled ourselves thoroughly therewith. The sixth day of September we entered the South Sea at the cape or head shore. . * . Our general . . . stayed here no longer, but weighed anchor, and set sail towards the coast of Chili, and, drawing towards it, we met near the shore an Indian in a canoe, who, thinking us to have been Spaniards, came to us and told us that at a place called St. Jago there was a great Spanish ship laden from the kingdom of Peru ; for which good news our general gave him divers trifles, whereof he was glad, and went away with us and brought us to the place which is called the port of Valparaiso. When we came thither, we found, indeed, the ship riding at anchor, having in her eight Spaniards and three negroes, who, thinking us to have been Spaniards and their friends, welcomed us with a drum, and made ready a Bottija of wine of Chili to drink to us ; but as soon as we were entered, one of our company, called Thomas Moore, began to lay about him, and struck one of the Spaniards, and said unto him, "Abaxo Perro," that is, in English, " Go down, dog.'' One of these Spaniards, see- ing persons of that quality in those seas, fell to crossing and blessing himself ; but, to be short, we stowed them under hatches, all save one Spaniard, who suddenly and IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN, 93 desperately leaped overboard into the sea, and swam ashore to the town of St. Jago to give the warning of our arrival. They of the town, being not above nine households, presently fled away and abandoned the town. Our general manned his boat and the Spanish ship's boat and went to the town, and being come to it we rifled it, and came to a small chapel, which we entered, and found therein a silver chalice, two cruets, and one altar-cloth, the spoil whereof our general gave to Mr. Fletcher, our minister. We found in this town a warehouse stored with wine of Chili, and many boards of cedar-wood, all which wine we brought away with us, and certain of the boards to burn for firewood ; and so being come aboard, we de- parted to the haven, having first set all the Spaniards on land, saving one John Griego, a Greek born, whom our general carried with him for his pilot to bring him into the haven of Lima. When we were at sea, our general rifled the ship, and found in her good store of the wine of Chili, and twenty-five thousand pezos of very pure and fine gold of Boldivia, amounting in value to thirty- seven thousand ducats of Spanish money, and above. So, going on our course, we arrived next at a place called Coquimbo, where our general sent fourteen of his men on land to fetch water; but they were espied by the Spaniards, who came with three hundred horse- men and two hundred footmen, and slew one of our men with a piece ; the rest came aboard in safety, and the Spaniards departed. We went on shore again, and the Spaniards came down again with a flag of truce ; but we set sail and w^ould not trust them. . . . 94 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, This pilot brought us to the haven of Guatulco, the town whereof, as he told us, had but seventeen Span- iards in it. As soon as we were entered this haven we landed, and went presently to the town, and to the town house, where we found a judge sitting in judgment, being associate with three other officers, upon three negroes that had conspired the burning of the town, both which judges and prisoners we took and brought them a ship- board, and caused the chief judge to write his letter to the town, to command all the townsmen to avoid, that we might safely water there ; which being done and they departed, we ransacked the town, and in a house we found a pot, of the quantity of a bushel, full of reals of plate, which we brought to our ship. And here Thomas Moore, one of our company, took a Spanish gentleman as he was flying out of the town, and searching him, he found a chain of gold about him and other jewels, which we took, and so let him go. At this place our general, among other Spaniards, set ashore his Portugal pilot, which he took at the Islands of Cape Verd, out of a ship of St. Mary port of Portu- gal, and having set them ashore, we departed hence, and sailed to the Island of Canno, where our general landed, and brought to shore his own ship and dis- charged her, mended and graved her, and furnished our ship with water and wood sufficiently. And while we were here we espied a ship, and set sail after her and took her, and found in her two pilots and a Spanish governor going from the Islands of the Philli- pinas. We searched the ship, and took some of her merchandise, and so let her go. Our general at this place and time, thinking himself both in respect of his private injuries received from the Spaniards, as also of A FAIR AND GOOD BAY, 95 their contempts and indignities offered to our country and prince in general, sufficiently satisfied and re- venged ; and supposing that her Majesty at his return would rest contented with these services, purposed to continue no longer upon the Spanish coasts, but began to consider and to consult of the best way for his country. He thought it not good to return by the straits for two special causes : the one, lest the Spaniards should there wait and attend for him in great numbers and strength, whose hands, he being left but one ship, could not pos- sibly escape. The other cause was the dangerous situa- tion of the mouth of the straits in the South Sea, where continual storms raging and blustering, as he found by experience, besides the shoals and sands upon the coast, he thought it not a good course to adventure that way. He resolved, therefore, to avoid these hazards, to go for- ward to the Islands of the Malucos, and there hence to sail the course of the Portugals by the Cape of Buena Esperanza. Upon this resolution he began to think of his best way to the Malucos, and finding himself where he now was, becalmed, he saw that of necessity he must be forced to take a Spanish course, namely, to sail somewhat northerly to get a wind. We therefore set sail and sailed six hundred leagues at the least for a good wind, and this much we sailed from the i6th of April till the 3d of June. The fifth day of June, being in forty-three degrees towards the pole Arctic, we found it so cold that our men, being grievously pinched with the same, complained of the extremity thereof, and the farther we went the more the cold increased upon us. Whereupon we thought it best for that time to seek the land, and did so, finding it not mountainous, but low, plain land, till we came within thirty-eight degrees to- 96 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. wards the line ; in which height it pleased God to send us into a fair and good bay, with a good wind to enter the same. In this bay we anchored, and the people of the country having their houses close by the water's side, showed themselves unto us, and sent a present to our general. When they came unto us, they greatly wondered at the things that we brought, but our general (accord- ing to his natural and accustomed humanity) courteously entreated them and liberally bestowed on them the neces- sary things to cover their nakedness, whereupon they supposed us to be gods, and would not be persuaded to the contrary. The presents which they sent to our general were feathers and coils of network. Their houses are digged about with earth, and have from the uttermost brims of the circle clifts of wood set upon them, joining close together at the top like a spire steeple, which, by reason of their cleverness, are very warm. . . . After they were departed from us, they came and visited us the second time, and brought with them feathers and bags of tobacco for presents. And when they came to the top of the hill (at the bottom whereof we had pitched our tents) they stayed themselves, where one appointed for speaker wearied himself with making a long oration ; which done, they left their bows upon the hill and came down with their presents. In the mean time the women remaining on the hill tormented themselves lamentably, tearing their flesh from their cheeks, whereby we perceived that they were about a sacrifice. In the mean time our general with his com- pany went to prayer and to reading of the Scripture, at which exercise they were attentive, and seemed greatly WELCOMED BY THE NATIVES. 97 to be affected with it ; but when they were come unto us, they restored again unto us those things which before we bestowed upon them. The news of our being there spread through the country, the people that inhabit round about came down, and amongst them the king himself, a man of goodly stature and comely personage, with many other tall and warlike men, before whose coming were sent two ambassadors to our general to signify that their king was coming, in doing of which message their speech was continued about half an hour. This ended, they by signs requested our general to send something by their hand as a token that his coming might be in peace ; wherein our general having satis- fied them, they returned with glad tidings to their king, who marched to us with a princely majesty, the people crying continually, after their manner, and as they drew near unto us, so did they strive to behave themselves in their actions with comeliness. In the fore part was a man of goodly personage, who bore the sceptre or mace before the king, whereon hanged two crowns, a less and a bigger, with three chains of a marvellous length. The crowns were made of knit work, wrought artificially with feathers of divers colors. The chains w^ere made of bony sub- stance, and few be the persons among them that are admitted to wear them, and of that number also the persons are stinted as some ten, some twelve, etc. Next unto him which bore the sceptre was the king himself, with his guard about his person, clad with cony skins and other skins. After them followed the naked, com- mon sort of people, every one having his face painted, some with white, some with black, and other colors, and 7 98 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. having in their hands one thing or another for a present, not so much as their children, but they also brought their presents. In the mean time our general gathered his men to- gether, and marched within his fenced place, making against their approaching a very warlike show. They being trooped together in their order, and a general salutation being made, there was presently a general silence. Then he that bore the sceptre before the king, being informed by another, whom they assigned to that office, with a manly and loud voice proclaimed that which the other spake to him in secret, continuing half an hour ; which ended and a general Amen, as it were, given, the king, with the whole number of men and women (the children excepted), came down without any weapon, who, descending to the foot of the hill, set themselves in order. In coming toward our bulwarks and tents, the sceptre- bearer began a song, observing his measures in a dance, and that with a stately countenance, whom the king with his guard and every degree of persons following did in like manner sing and dance, saving only the women which danced and kept silence. The general permitted them to enter within our bulwark, where they continued their song and dance a reasonable time. When they had satisfied themselves, they made signs to our general to sit down, to whom the king and divers others made several ora- tions, or rather supplications, that he would take their province and kingdom into his hand and become their king, making signs that they would resign unto him their right and title of the whole land, and become his subjects. In which, to persuade us the better, the king and the rest, with one consent, and with great reverence, SACRIFICES OF THE SAVAGES. 99 joyfully singing a song, did set the crown upon his head, enriched his neck with all their chains, and offered unto him many other things, honoring him with the name of Hioh, adding thereunto, as it seemed, a sign of triumph \ which thing our General thought it not meet to reject, be- cause he knew not what honor and profit it might be to our country. Wherefore in the name and to the use of her Majesty he took the sceptre, crown, and dignity of the said country into his hands, wishing that the riches and treasure thereof might so conveniently be transported to the enriching of her kingdom at home, as it abound- eth in the same. The coilimon sort of people, leaving the king and guard with our General, scattered themselves together with their sacrifices among our people, taking a diligent view of every person : and such as pleased their fancy (which were the youngest) they, enclosing them about, offered their sacrifices unto them with lamentable weep- ing, scratching and tearing the flesh from their faces with their nails, whereof issued abundance of blood. But we used signs to them of disliking this, and stayed their hands from force, and directed them upwards to the living God, whom only they ought to worship. They showed unto us their wounds, and craved help of them at our hands, whereupon we gave them lotions, plasters, and ointments agreeing to the state of their griefs, be- seeching God to cure their diseases. Every third day they brought their sacrifices unto us, until they under- stood our meaning, that we had no pleasure in them. Yet they could not be long absent from us, but daily frequented our company to the hour of our departure, which departure seemed so grievous unto them that their joy was turned into sorrow. They entreated us that, LofC. 100 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, being absent, we would remember them, and by stealth provided for us a sacrifice, which we misliked. . . . Our General called this country Nova Albion, and that for two causes : the one in respect of the white banks and cliffs which lie towards the sea : and the other because it might have some affinity with our country in name, which sometimes was so called. There is no part of earth here to be taken up, wherein there is not some probable show of gold and silver. At our departure hence our General set up a monument of our being there, as also of her Majesty's right and title to the same, namely, a plate nailed upon a fair, great post, whereupon was engraven her Majesty's name, the day and year of our arrival there, with the free giving up of the province and people into her Majesty's hands, to- gether with her Highness's picture and arms, in a piece of sixpence of current English money under the plate, whereunto was also written the name of our General. It seemeth that the Spaniards hitherto had never been in this part of the country, neither did ever discover the land by many degrees to the southwards of this place. They also read the story of the Portuguese pilot whom Drake captured off the Cape Verd Islands and carried with him through the straits. THE STORY OF NUNO DA SILVA. Nuno da Silva, born in Porto, a citizen and inhabitant of Guaia, saith that he departed out of his house in the beginning of November, in the year of our Lord 1577, tak- ing his course to Cabo Verde, or " the Green Cape/' where he anchored with his ship close by the haven of the Island THE PORTUGUESE PILOT lOI of St. Jago, one of the islands of Caho Verde^ afore- said, being the 19th of January in the year of our Lord 15 78. And lying there, there came six ships, which seemed to be Englishmen, whereof the admiral boarded his ship, and by force, with his men, took him out of his ship, leav- ing some of his best men aboard his ship ; and although the fortress of the island shot four or five times at them, yet they hurt not the Englishmen ; who, having done, set sail from thence to the island of Brava, taking with them the ship of the said Nuno da Silva : being there, they filled certain vessels with fresh water ; from thence, holding their course inward to sea, having first, with a boat, set the men of Nuno da Silva^s ship on land, only keeping Nuno da Silva in his ship, as also his ship with the wines that were therein. And Nuno da Silva saith the cause why they kept him on board was because they knew him to be a pilot for the coast of Brasilia, that he might bring them to such places in those countries as had fresh water. . . . From thence they held on their course till they came under nine and thirty degrees, where they anchored ; and being there, they left two of their six ships behind them, and sailed but four in company (that of Nuno da Silva being one) till they came to the bay called Baya de las Islas, that is, the *'Bay of the Islands,'' lying under nine and forty degrees, where it is said that Magellan lay and wintered there with his ship when he first discovered the strait which now holdethhis name. Into this bay the 20th of June they entered, and there anchored so close to the land that they might send to it with a harquebus shot. And there they saw the land to be inhabited with Indians that were apparelled with skins, with their legs from the knees downward and their arms from the elbows downward naked, all the rest of their bodies being clothed, with 102 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. bows and arrows in their hands, being subtle, great, and well-formed people, and strong and high of stature ; where six of the Englishmen went on land to fetch fresh water, and before they left on land, four of the Indians came unto their boat, to whom the Enghshmen gave bread and wine. And when the Indians had well eaten and drunk they departed thence. And going somewhat far from them, one of the Indians cried to them, and said: "Magallanes, esta he minha Terra," that is, " Magallanes, this is my country." And because the Englishmen followed them, it seemed the Indians fled upward into the land, and being somewhat far off, they turned back again, and with their arrows slew two of the English shippers, one being an Englishman, the other a Netherlander. The rest came back and saved themselves in the boat, wherewith they presently put off from the shore. Here they stayed till the 1 7th of August, upon which day they set sail, running along by the coast about a league and a half from the land (for there it is all fair and good ground, at twenty, and five and twenty fathom deep), and were about four or five days before they came to the mouth or entry of the strait ; but, because the wind was contrary, they stayed till the 24th of August before they entered. The entry or mouth of the strait is about a league broad, on both sides being bare and flat land. On the north side they saw Indians making great fires, but on the south side they saw no people stirring. The four and twentieth day aforesaid they began to enter into the strait with an east- northeast wind. This strait may be about an hundred and ten leagues long, and in breadth a league. About the entry of the strait, and half way into it, it runneth right forth with- out any windings or turnings ; and from thence, about eight or ten leagues towards the end, it hath some bouts and wind- THE HAVEN OF GUATULCO. 103 ings, among the which there is one so great a hook or head- land, that it seemed to run into the other land ; and there it is less than a league broad from one land to the other, and from thence forward it runneth straight out again ; and although you find some crookings, yet they are nothing to speak of. The issue of the strait lieth westward, and about eight or ten leagues before you come to the end, then the strait beginneth to be broader, and it is all high land to the end thereof, after you are eight leagues within the strait, for the first eight leagues after you enter is low, flat land, as I said before. . . . Three days after, they both let the ship and men go whither they would, setting therein the two sailors that should go for China, which they had taken in the frigate, keeping only one sailor to show them where they should find fresh water, to the which end they took the empty vessels with them to fill with water, and so kept on their course to the haven of Guatulco, where they put in, being about Monday the 1 3th of April, and, having anchored, they stayed there till the sixth and twentieth of April, and about three or four hours within the night they set sail, holding their course westward, and an hour or two before they let Nuno da Silva go, putting him into another ship that lay in the haven of Guatulco. From thence forward the Englishmen passed on their voyage to the Islands of Malucos, and from thence they passed by the Cape de Buena Esperanza^ and so to Eng- land, as it is well known, so that this is only the descrip- tion of the voyage that they made while the said pilot, Nuno da Silva, was with them. Hereafter followeth the copy of a letter written by Sir Francis Drake (being in the South Sea of New Spain, in his ship called the " Pelican," or the " Golden Hind," 104 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. with the ship of St. John de Anton, which he had taken) to his companions in the other ships that were of his com- pany, and by foul weather separated from him, as I said before. The contents whereof were these : — Master Winter, if it pleaseth God that you should chance to meet with this ship of St. John de Anton, I pray you use him well, according to my word and promise given unto them, and if you want to use anything that is in this ship of St. John de Anton, I pray you pay them double the value for it, which I will satisfy again, and com- mand your men not to do any hurt. And what composition or agreement we have made, at my return into England I will, by God's help, perform, although I am in doubt that this letter will never come to your hands ; notwithstanding, I am the man I have promised to be : beseeching God, the Saviour of all the world, to have us in his keeping, to whom only I give all honor, praise, and glory. What I have written is not only to you, M. Winter, but also to M. Thomas, M. Charles, M. Caube, and M. Anthony, with all our other good friends, whom I commit to the tuition of him that with his blood redeemed us, and am in good hope that we shall be in no more trouble, but that he will help us in adversity, desiring you, for the Passion of Christ, if you fall into any danger, that you will not despair of God's mercy, for he will defend you and preserve you from all danger, and bring us to our desired haven, to whom be all honor, glory, and praise for ever and ever. Amen. Your sorrowful Captain, whose heart is heavy for you, Francis Drake. The next was the story of those who were separated from Drake in the straits. RETURN THROUGH THE STRAIT 105 The 15th of September the moon was there eclipsed, and began to darken presently after the setting of the sun, about six of the clock at that night, being then equinoctial vernal in that country. The said eclipse happened the sixteenth day in the morning before one of the clock in England, which is about six hours difference, agreeing to one quarter of the world, from the meridian of England toward the west. The last of September being a very foul night, and the seas sore grown, we lost the " Marigold,'* the general's ship and the '' EHzabeth " running to the eastward to get the shore, whereof we had sight the 7th of October, falling into a very dangerous bay full of rocks ; and there we lost company of M. Drake the same night. The next day, very hardly escaping the danger of the rocks, we put into the straits again, where we anchored in an open bay for the space of two days, and made great fires on the shore, to the end if M. Drake should come into the straits, he might find us. After, we went into a sound, where we stayed for the space of three weeks, and named it *'The Port of Health;'' for the most part of our men, being very sick with long watching, wet, cold, and evil diet, did here (God be thanked) wonderfully recover their health in short space. Here we had very great muscles (some being twenty inches long), very pleas- ant meat, and many of them full of seed-pearls. We came out of this harbor the istof November, giving over our voyage by M. Winter's compulsion (full sore against the mariners' minds), who alleged, he stood in despair, as well to have winds to serve his turn for Peru, as also of M. Drake's safety. So we came back again through the straits to St. George's Island, where we took of the fowls before named and after departed. . . . The 30th of May we had sight of St. Ives, on the north I06 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, side of Cornwall, and the 2d of June, 1579, we arrived at Ilfoord-combe, in Devonshire. And thus, after our mani- fold troubles and great dangers in having passed the Straits of Magellan into the South Sea with our General, M. Francis Drake, and having been driven with him down to the southerly latitude of fifty-seven degrees, and afterward passing back by the same straits again, it pleased God to bring us safe into our own native country, to enjoy the presence of our dear friends and kinsfolks ; to whom be praise, honor, and glory for ever and ever. Amen. V. THE ATLANTIC COAST. " T TNCLE FRITZ, who discovered the United v-/ States? I do not mean Columbus, and I do not mean who discovered Florida. But who discovered our genuine Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and so on?" This was Fanchon's ejaculation as they came in after quite an eager discussion. " Some people think that they were never discovered at all, and I am one of them." " What in the world do you mean, Uncle Fritz ? You are always poking fun at us." " Not this time," said Uncle Fritz. And then he took out for them some old maps which showed how Colum- bus supposed the coast of Asia to run. Then he showed them how, on the earliest maps of America, Newfound- land and the ^' Bacalaos," or codfish lands, were laid down, and Florida ; before the coast of the United States was put in, Sebastian Cabot seems to have sailed down, but he left no line of the coast. Then Uncle Fritz told them that, as the map-makers still supposed this was all Asia, it was very natural that they should run the line along from Florida to Newfound- land before any one had seen it. X I08 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, " Mr. Henry Stevens first suggested that probably they did so ; and this suggestion has been received with favor by the best authorities. " A Venetian pirate named Verrazzano, acting in the French service, has generally the credit of the first dis- covery of the coast. You will find Bancroft gives him that credit in his earlier editions. ^* But as he says he found roses and lilies in the lati- tude of New York harbor in the month of March, and, a little farther north, found the Indians drying grapes for raisins a few weeks after, his narrative may be set aside as a Mie with a circumstance.' " But," said Uncle Fritz, " you shall read for your- selves. I knew this must come in, and I have put in some marks for the early lines of the coast, — Verrazzano and all.'' THE VERRAZZANO LETTER.l Captain John de Verrazzano to His Most Serene Majesty the King of France, writes : — Since the tempests which we encountered on the north- ern coasts, I ha.ve not written to your most Serene and Christian Majesty concerning the four ships sent out by your orders on the ocean to discover new lands, because I thought you must have been before apprised of all that had happened to us, — that we had been compelled by the impetuous violence of the winds to put into Brittany in distress with only the two ships ** Normandy " and " Dolphin " ; and that, after having repaired these ships, we made a cruise in them, well armed, along the coast of Spain, as your Majesty must have heard, and also of 1 We follow Mr. Miirphy's spelling. GIOVANNI VERRAZZANO VERRAZZANO. IO9 our new plan of continuing our begun voyage with the " Dolphin '' alone. From this voyage being now re- turned, I proceed to give your Majesty an account of our discoveries. On the 17th of last January we set sail from a deso- late rock near the Island of Madeira, belonging to his most Serene Majesty the King of Portugal, with fifty men, having provisions sufficient for eight months, arms and other warlike munition, and naval stores. Sailing westward with a light and pleasant easterly breeze, in twenty-five days we ran eight hundred leagues. On the 24th of February we encountered as violent a hurri- cane as any ship ever weathered, from which we escaped unhurt by the Divine assistance and goodness, to the praise of the glorious and fortunate name of our good ship, that had been able to support the violent tossing of the waves. Pursuing our voyage toward the west, a little northwardly, in twenty-four days more, having run four hundred leagues, we reached a new country, which had never before been seen by any one, either in an- cient or modern times. At first it appeared to be very low ; but on approaching it to within a quarter of a league from the shore, we perceived, by the great fires near the coast, that it was inhabited. We perceived that it stretched to the south, and coasted along in that direction in search of some port in which we might come to anchor, and examine into the nature of the country; but for fifty leagues we could find none in which we could lie securely. Seeing the coast still stretched to the south, we resolved to change our course and stand to the northward, and as we still had the same difficulty, we drew in with the land and sent a boat on shore. Many people who were seen coming to the sea- 1 1 STORIES OF DISCO VER V. side fled at our approach, but, occasionally stopping, they looked back upon us with astonishment, and some were at length induced by various friendly signs to come to us. These showed the greatest delight on beholding us, wondering at our dress, countenances, and complex- ion. They then showed us by signs where we could more conveniently secure our boat, and offered us some of their provisions. That your Majesty may know all that we learned while on shore of their manners and customs of life, I will relate what we saw as briefly as possible. They go entirely naked, except that about the loins they wear skins of small animals, like martens, fastened by a girdle of plaited grass, to which they tie, all round the body, the tails of other animals, hanging down to the knees ; all other parts of the body and the head are naked. Some wear garlands similar to birds' feathers. The complexion of this people is black, not much different from that of the Ethiopians ; their hair is black and thick, and not very long ; it is worn tied back upon the head in the form of a little tail. In person they are of good proportions, of middle stature, a little above our own, broad across the breast, strong in the arms, and well formed in the legs and other parts of the body ; the only exception to their good looks is that they have broad faces ; but not all, however, as we saw many that had sharp ones, with large black eyes and a fixed ex- pression. They are not very strong in body, but acute in mind ; active and swift of foot, as far as we could judge by observation. In these last two particulars they resemble the people of the East, especially those the most remote. We could not learn a great many particulars of their usages on account of our short stay among them, and the distance of our ship from the shore. A DELIGHTFUL COUNTRY. Ill We found not far from this people another, whose mode of life we judged to be similar. The whole shore is covered with fine sand, about fifteen feet thick, rising in the form of little hills about fifty paces broad. As- cending farther, we found several arms of the sea which make in through inlets, washing the shores on both sides as the coast runs. An outstretched country appears at a little distance, rising somewhat above the sandy shore in beautiful fields and broad plains, covered with im- mense forests of trees, more or less dense, too various in colors, and too delightful and charming in appearance, to be described. I do not believe that they are like the Hercynian forest or the rough wilds of Scythia, and the northern regions full of vines and common trees, but adorned with palms, laurels, cypresses, and other varieties unknown in Europe, that send forth the sweetest fragrance to a great distance, but which we could not examine more closely for the reasons before given, and not on account of any difficulty in traversing the woods, which, on the contrary, are easily penetrated. As the '' East " stretches around this country,^ I think it cannot be devoid of the same medicinal and aromatic drugs, and various riches of gold and the like, as is de- noted by the color of the ground. It abounds also in animals, as deer, stags, hares, and many other similar, and with a great variety of birds for every kind of pleasant and delightful sports. It is plentifully sup- plied with lakes and ponds of running water, and, being in the latitude of thirty-four, the air is salubrious, pure, and temperate, and free from the extremes of both heat and cold. There are no violent winds in these regions; the most prevalent are the northwest and 1 It is meant that this is the shore of Asia. 112 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, west. In summer, the season in which we were there, the sky is clear, with but Httle rain ; if fogs and mists are at any time driven in by the south wind, they are instantaneously dissipated, and at once it becomes serene and bright again. The sea is calm, not boisterous, and its waves are gentle. Although the whole coast is low and without harbors, it is not dangerous for navigation, being free from rocks, and bold, so that within four or five fathoms from the shore there is twenty-four feet of water at all times of tide ; and this depth constantly increases in uniform proportion. The holding ground is so good that no ship can part her cable, however violent the wind, as we proved by experience ; for while riding at anchor on the coast we were overtaken by a gale in the beginning of March, when the winds are high, as is usual in all countries ; we found our anchor broken before it started from its hold or moved at all. . . . Departing hence, and always following the shore, which stretched to the north, we came, in the space of fifty leagues, to another land, which appeared very beau- tiful and full of the largest forests. . . . We saw in this country many vines growing naturally, which entwine about the trees and run upon them as they do in the plains of Lombardy. These vines would doubtless produce excellent wine if they were properly cultivated and attended to, as we have often seen the grapes which they produce very sweet and pleasant, and not unlike our own. They must be held in estima- tion by them, as they carefully remove the shrubbery from around them, wherever they grow, to allow the fruit to ripen better. We found also wild roses, violets, lilies, and many sorts of plants and fragrant flowers A LARGE RIVER. II3 different from our own. We cannot describe their habitations, as they are in the interior of the country ; but from various indications we conclude they must be formed of trees and shrubs. We saw also many grounds for conjecturing that they often sleep in the opien air, without any covering but the sky. Of their other usages we know nothing ; we believe, however, that all the people we were among live in the same way. After having remained here three days, riding at anchor on the coast, as we could find no harbor, w^e determined to depart, and coast along the shore to the northeast, keeping sail on the vessel only by day, and coming to anchor by night. After proceeding one hun- dred leagues we found a very pleasant situation among some steep hills, through which a very large river, deep at its mouth, forced its way to the sea ; from the sea to the estuary of the river any ship heavily laden might pass with the help of the tide, which rises eight feet. But as we were riding at anchor, in a good berth, we would not venture up in our vessel without a good knowledge of the mouth ; therefore we took the boat, and entering the river we found the country on its banks well peopled, the inhabitants not differing much from the others, being dressed out with feathers of birds of various colors. They came towards us with evident delight, raising loud shouts of admiration, and showing us where we could most securely land with our boat. We passed up this river about half a league, when we found it formed a most beautiful lake three leagues in circuit, upon which they were rowing thirty or more of their small boats, from one shore to the other, filled with multitudes who came to see us. All of a sudden, as is wont to happen to navigators, 8 114 STORIES OF DISCO VER V. a violent contrary wind blew in from the sea, and forced us to return to our ship, greatly regretting to leave this region which seemed so commodious and delightful, and which we supposed must also contain great riches, as the hills showed many indications of minerals. Weigh- ing anchor, we sailed eighty leagues toward the east, as the coast stretched in that direction, and always in sight of it ; at length we discovered an island of a triangular form, about ten leagues from the mainland, in size about equal to the Island of Rhodes, having many hills covered with trees, and well peopled, judging from the great number of fires which we saw all along the shore. We gave it the name of your Majesty's illustrious mother. We did not land there, as the weather was unfavorable, but proceeded to another place, fifteen leagues distant from the island, where we found a very excellent harbor. Before entering it, we saw about twenty small boats full of people, who came about our ship, uttering many cries of astonishment, but they would not approach nearer than within fifty paces ; stopping, they looked at the structure of our ship, our persons and dress; after- wards they all raised a loud shout together, signifying that they were pleased. By imitating their signs, we inspired them in some measure with confidence, so that they came near enough for us to toss to them some little glass bells and glasses, and many toys, which they took and looked at, laughing, and then came on board without fear. Among them were two kings more beau- tiful in form and stature than can possibly be described ; one was about forty years old, the other about twenty- four, and they were dressed in the following manner : the oldest had a deer's skin around his body, artificially COPPER ORNAMENTS, II5 wrought in damask figures ; his head was without cover- ing ; his hair was tied back in various knots ; around his neck he wore a large chain ornamented with many- stones of different colors. The young man was similar in his general appearance. This is the finest looking tribe, and the handsomest in their costumes, that we have found in our voyage. They exceed us in size, and they are of a very fair complexion ; some of them in- cline more to a white, and others to a tawny color ; their faces are sharp, their hair long and black, upon the adorning of which they bestowed great pains ; their eyes are black and sharp, their expression mild and pleasant, greatly resembling the antique. I say nothing to your Majesty of the other parts of the body, which are all in good proportion and such as belong to well- formed men. Their women are of the same form and beauty, very graceful, of fine countenances and pleas- ing appearance in manners and modesty ; they wear no clothing except a deer-skin, ornamented like those worn by the men \ some wear very rich lynx-skins upon their arms, and various ornaments upon their heads, composed of braids of hair, which also hang down upon their breasts on each side. Others wear different orna- ments, such as the women of Egypt and Syria use. The older and married people, both men and women, wear many ornaments in their ears, hanging down in the Ori- ental manner. We saw upon them several pieces of wrought copper, which is more esteemed by them than gold, as this is not valued on account of its color, but is considered by them as the most ordinary of metals, — yellow being the color especially disliked by them ; azure and red are those in highest estimation with them. Of those things which we gave them, they prized most Il6 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. highly the bells, azure crystals, and other toys to hang in their ears and about their necks ; they do not value or care to have silk or gold stuffs, or other kinds of cloth, nor implements of steel or iron. When we showed them our arms, they expressed no admiration, and only asked how they were made ; the same was the case with the looking-glasses, which they returned to us, smiUng, as soon as they had looked at them. They are very generous, giving away whatever they have. We formed a great friendship with them, and one day we entered into the port with our ship, having before rode at the distance of a league from the shore, as the weather was adverse. They came off to the ship with a number of their little boats, with their faces painted in divers colors, showing us real signs of joy, bringing us of their provisions, and signifying to us where we could best ride in safety with our ship, and keeping with us until we had cast anchor. . . . Having supplied ourselves with everything necessary, on the 6th of May we departed from the port, and sailed one hundred and fifty leagues, keeping so close to the coast as never to lose it from our sight j the nature of the country appeared much the same as be- fore, but the mountains were a little higher, and all in appearance rich in minerals. We did not stop to land, as the weather was very favorable for pursuing our voyage, and the country presented no variety. The shore stretched to the east, and fifty leagues beyond more to the north, where we found a more elevated country, full of very thick woods of fir-trees, cypresses, and the like, indicative of a cold climate. The people were entirely different from the others we had seen, whom we had found kind and gentle ; but these were MORE BARBAROUS PEOPLE, 11/ SO rude and barbarous that we were unable, by any signs we could make, to hold communication with them. They clothe themselves in the skins of bears, lynxes, seals, and other animals. Their food, as far as we could judge by several visits to their dwellings, is obtained by hunting and fishing, and fruits, which are a sort of root of spontaneous growth. They have no pulse, and we saw no signs of cultivation ; the land appears sterile and unfit for growing of fruit or grain of any kind. If we wished at any time to traffic with them, they came to the seashore and stood on the rocks, from which they lowered down by a cord to our boats beneath whatever they had to barter, continually crying out to us not to come nearer, and instantly demanding from us that which was to be given in exchange ; they took from us only knives, fish-hooks, and sharpened steel. No regard was paid to our courtesies ; when we had noth- ing left to exchange with them, the men at our de- parture made the most brutal signs of disdain and contempt possible. Against their will we penetrated two or three leagues into the interior with twenty-five men ; when we came to the shore they shot at us with their arrows, raising the most horrible cries and after- wards fleeing to the woods. In this region we found nothing extraordinary except vast forests and some metalliferous hills, as we infer from seeing that many of the people wore copper ear-rings. Departing from thence, we kept along the coast, steering northeast, and found the country more pleasant and open, free from woods, and distant in the interior we saw lofty moun- tains, but none which extended to the shore. Within fifty leagues we discovered thirty-two islands, all near the main land, small and of pleasant appearance, but 1 1 8 STORIES OF DISCO VER K high and so disposed as to afford excellent harbors and channels, as we see in the Adriatic Gulf, near Illyria and Dalmatia. We had no intercourse with the people, but we judge that they were similar in nature and usages to those we were last among. After sailing between east and north the distance of one hundred and fifty leagues more, and finding our provisions and naval stores nearly exhausted, we took in wood and water and determined to return to France, having dis- covered seven hundred leagues of unknown lands. . . . My intention in this voyage was to reach Cathay, on the extreme coast of Asia, expecting, however, to find in the newly discovered land some such obstacle, as they have proved to be, yet I did not doubt that I should penetrate by some passage to the eastern ocean. It was the opinion of the ancients that our Oriental Indian ocean is one, and without interposing land; Aristotle supports it by arguments founded on various proba- bilities ; but it is contrary to that of the moderns, and shown to be erroneous by experience. The country which has been discovered, and which was unknown to the ancients, is another world compared with that be- fore known, being manifestly larger than our Europe, together with Africa, and perhaps Asia. . . . The continent of Asia and Africa, we know for cer- tain, is joined to Europe at the north in Norway and Russia, which disproves the idea of the ancients that all this part has been navigated from the Cimbric Cher- sonesus eastward as far as the Caspian Sea. They also maintained that the whole continent was surrounded by two seas situate to the east and west of it, which seas in fact do not surround either of the two continents ; for, as we have seen above, the land of the southern hemi- SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. II9 sphere at the latitude of 54 extends eastwardly an un- known distance, and that of the northern passing the 66th parallel turns to the east, and has no termination as high as the 70th. In a short time, I hope, we shall have more certain knowledge of these things, by the aid of your Majesty, whom I pray Almighty God to prosper in lasting glory, that we may see the most important results of this our cosmography in the fulfilment of the Gospel. On board the ship " Dolphin," in the port of Dieppe, in Normandy, the 8th of July, 1524. Your humble servitor, Janus Verrazzanus. After the Verrazzano Letter had been read and dis- cussed by certain of the older children, under the guidance of Uncle Fritz, who was careful to direct their opinions into the right channel as regards the veracity of the writer, Horace Felltham, who always had Hakluyt on his tongue's end, proceeded to narrate the story of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his voyage to Newfoundland. A few days afterward, some of the children copied bits of the story from the Hakluyt at the Public Library and read them to the rest. Dear Mr. Haven used to say that the sixteenth cen- tury was our " Mythical Age " in America. There are bits of stories, of which we have neither beginning nor end. And there were great heroes then. Grenville,^ whose fight with the Spaniards the young people knew about, was one of them, and this Gilbert, who was his friend, was another. 1 See "Stories of the Sea," p. 95. 120 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. THE RETURN OF SIR HUMFREY GILBERT, AUGUST, 1583. Those in the frigate were already pinched with spare allowance, and want of clothes chiefly. Whereupon they besought the general to return for England, be- fore they all perished. And to them of the " Golden Hinde '' they made signs of their distress, pointing to their mouths, and to their clothes thin and ragged ; then immediately they also of the " Golden Hinde " grew to be of the same opinion and desire to return home. The former reasons having also moved the general to have compassion of his poor men, in whom he saw no want of good will, but of means fit to perform the action they came for, resolved upon return ; and calling the captain and master of the " Hinde," he yielded them many reasons, enforcing this unexpected return, withal protesting himself greatly satisfied with that he had seen, and knew already. Reiterating these words, " Be content, we have seen enough, and take no care of expense past j I will set you forth royally the next spring, if God send us safe home. Therefore I pray you let us no longer strive here, where we fight against the elements." How unwillingly the captain and master of the " Hinde " condescended to this motion, his own com- pany can testify ; yet comforted with the generaPs promises of a speedy return at spring, and induced by other apparent reasons, proving an impossibility to accomplish the action at that time, it was concluded on all hands to retire. So upon Saturday in the afternoon, the 31st of August, A LION IN THE SEA, 121 we changed our course, and returned back for England, at which very instant, even in winding about, there passed along between us and towards the land which we now forsook a very lion to our seeming, in shape, hair, and color, not swimming after the manner of a beast by moving of his feet, but rather sliding upon the water with his whole body (excepting the legs) in sight, neither yet diving under, and again rising above the water, as the manner is of whales, dolphins, tunies, porpoise, and all other fish, but confidently showing himself above water without hiding. Notwithstanding, we presented ourselves in open view and gesture to amaze him, as all creatures will be commonly at a sudden gaze and sight of men. Thus he passed along, turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide, with ugly demonstration of long teeth, and glaring eyes ; and to bid us a farewell (coming right against the " Hinde *') he sent forth a horrible voice, roaring or bellowing as doeth a Hon, which spectacle we all beheld so far as we were able to discern the same, as men prone to wonder at every strange thing, as this doubt- less was, to see a lion in the ocean sea, or fish in shape of a Hon. What opinions others had thereof, and chiefly the general himself, I forbear to deliver. But he took it for bonum omen, rejoicing that he was to war against such an enemy, if it were the devil. The wind was large for England at our return, but very high, and the sea rough, insomuch as the frigate wherein the general went was almost swallowed up. Monday in the afternoon we passed in the sight of Cape Race, having made as much way in little more than two days and nights back again, as before we had done in eight days from Cape Race unto the place 122 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. where our ship perished. Which hindrance thitherward, and speed back again, is to be imputed unto the swift current, as well as to the winds, which we had more large in our return. This Monday the general came aboard the " Hinde " to have the surgeon of the '' Hinde " to dress his foot, which he hurt by treading upon a nail. At what time we comforted each other with hope of hard success to be all past, and of the good to come. So agreeing to carry out lights always by night, that we might keep together, he departed into his frigate, being by no means to be en- treated to tarry in the " Hinde," which had been more for his security. Immediately after followed a sharp storm, which we overpassed for that time. Praised be God. The weather fair, the general came aboard the " Hinde " again, to make merry together with the cap- tain, master, and company, which was the last meeting, and continued there from morning until night, during which time there passed sundry discourses touching affairs past and to come, lamenting greatly the loss of his great ship, more of the men, but most of all of his books and notes, and what else I know not, for which he was out of measure grieved, the same doubtless being some matter of more importance than his books, which I could not draw from him ; yet by circumstance I gathered the same to be the ore which Daniel the Saxon had brought unto him in the Newfoundland. Whatsoever it was, the remembrance touched him so deep, as, not able to contain himself, he beat his boy in great rage, even at the same time, so long after the miscarrying of the great ship, because upon a fair day, when we were becalmed upon the coast of the Newfoundland, near unto Cape Race, he sent his boy THE VOYAGE HOME. 1 23 aboard the admiral, to fetch certain things, amongst which, this being chief, was yet forgotten and left be- hind. After which time he could never conveniently send again aboard the great ship, much less he doubted her ruin so near at hand. Herein my opinion was better confirmed diversely, and by sundry conjectures, which maketh me have the greater hope of this rich mine. For whereas the general had never before good conceit of these north parts of the world, now his mind was wholly fixed upon the Newfoundland ; and as before he refused not to grant assignments liberally to them that required the same into these north parts, now he became con- trarily affected, refusing to make any so large grants, especially of St. Johns, which certain English merchants made suit for, offering to employ their money and travel upon the same j yet neither by their own suit, nor of others of his own company, whom he seemed wilhng to pleasure, it could be obtained. Also laying down his determination in the spring following for disposing of his voyage then to be re- attempted, he assigned the captain and master of the " Golden Hinde " unto the south discovery, and re- served unto himself the north, afiirming that this voyage had won his heart from the south, and that he was now become a northern man altogether. Last, being demanded what means he had at his arrival in England to compass the charges of so great a preparation as he intended to make the next spring, having determined upon two fleets, one for the south, another for the north : " Leave that to me," he replied ; *^ I will ask a penny of no man. I will bring good tidings unto her Majesty, who will be so gracious to lend me 124 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. one thousand pounds, willing us therefore to be of good cheer ; for he did thank God/' he said, " with all his heart, for that he had seen, the same being enough for us all, and that we needed not to seek any further." And these last words he would often repeat, with dem- onstrations of great fervency of mind, being himself very confident and settled in belief of inestimable good by this voyage ; which the greater number of his follow- ers nevertheless mistrusted altogether, not being made partakers of those secrets, which the general kept unto himself. Yet all of them that are living may be wit- nesses of his words and protestations, which sparingly I have delivered. Leaving the issue of this good hope unto God, who knoweth the truth only, and can at his good pleasure bring the same to light, I will hasten to the end of this tragedy, which must be knit up in the person of our general. And as it was God's ordinance upon him, even so the vehement persuasion and entreaty of his friends could nothing avail to divert him from a wilful resolution of going through in his frigate, which was overcharged upon their decks, with fights, nettings, and small artillery, too cumbersome for so small a boat, that was to pass through the ocean sea at that season of the year, when by course we might expect much storm of foul weather, whereof indeed we had enough. But when he was entreated by the captain, master, and other his well-willers of the " Hinde,'' not to ven- ture in the frigate, this was his answer : " I will not for- sake my little company going homeward, with whom I have passed so many storms and perils." And in very truth he was urged to be so over hard, by hard reports given of him, that he was afraid of the sea, albeit this ST, ELMO'S FIRE. 12$ was rather rashness than advised resolution, to prefer the wind of a vain report to the weight of his own Hfe. Seeing he would not bend to reason, he had provision out of the " Hinde '' such as was wanting aboard his frigate. And so we committed him to God's protection, and set him aboard his pinnace, we being more than three hundred leagues onward of our way home. By that time we had brought the Islands of Azores south of us, yet we then keeping much to the north, until we had got into the height and elevation of Eng- land ; we met with very foul weather, and terrible seas, breaking short and high, pyramid-wise. The reason whereof seemed to proceed either of hilly grounds high and low within the sea (as we see hills and dales upon the land), upon which the seas do mount and fall ; or else the cause proceedeth of diversity of winds, shifting often in sundry points ; all which having power to move the great ocean, which again is not presently settled, so many seas do encounter together, as there had been diversities of winds. Howsoever it cometh to pass, men which all their lifetime had occupied the sea, never saw more outrageous seas. We had also upon our main yard an apparition of a little fire by night, which seamen do call Castor and Pollux. But we had only one, which they take an evil sign of more tempest; the same is usual in storms. Monday, the 9th of September, in the afternoon, the frigate was near cast away, oppressed by waves, yet at the same time recovered ; and giving forth signs of joy, the general sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out unto us in the " Hinde " (so oft as we did approach within hearing), " We are as near to heaven by sea as by land," reiterating the same speech, well beseeming a 126 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. soldier, resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify he was. The same Monday night, about twelve of the clock, or not long after, the frigate being ahead of us in the " Golden Hinde,'* suddenly her lights were out, whereof as it were in a moment we lost the sight, and withal our watch cried the general was cast away, which was too true. For in that moment the frigate was devoured and swallowed up of the sea. Yet still we looked out all that night, and ever after, until we arrived upon the coast of England ; omitting no small sail at sea, unto which we gave not the tokens between us agreed upon to have perfect knowledge of each other, if we should at any time be separated. In great torment of weather, and peril of drowning, it pleased God to send safe home the " Golden Hinde," which arrived in Falmouth the twenty-second day of September, being Sunday, not without as great danger escaped in a flaw, coming from the southeast, with such thick mist that we could not discern the land, to put in right with the haven. From Falmouth we went to Dartmouth, and lay there at anchor before the Range, while the captain went aland, to inquire if there had been any news of the frigate, which, sailing well, might happily have been before us. Also to certify Sir John Gilbert, brother unto the general, of our hard success, whom the captain desired (while his men were yet aboard him, and were witnesses of all occurrents in that voyage), it might please him to take the examination of every person particularly, in discharge of his and their faithful endeavor. Sir John refused so to do, holding himself satisfied with report made by the captain ; and not altogether despairing of his brother's BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLL, 12/ safety, offered friendship and courtesy to the captain and his company, requiring to have his bark brought into the harbor ; in furtherance whereof, a boat was sent to help to tow her in. Among the other books which Uncle Fritz had on the table w^as " The General History of Virginia," by Cap- tain John Smith. The children were all interested in this book, and Bedford read several extracts from it aloud. BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLLi AND MARTHA'S VINEYARD. All hopes of Virginia thus abandoned, it lay dead and obscured from 1590 till this year 1602, that Cap- tain Gosnoll, with thirty-two and himself in a small bark, set sail from Dartmouth upon the 26th of March. Though the wind favored us not at the first, but forced us as far southward as the Azores, which was not much out of our way ; we ran directly west from thence, whereby we made our journey shorter than heretofore by five hundred leagues. The weakness of our ship, the badness of our sailors, and our ignorance of the coast, caused us to carry but a low sail, that made our passage longer than we expected. On Friday, the nth of May, we made land. It was somewhat low, where appeared certain hummocks or hills in it ; the shore white sand, but very rocky, yet overgrown with fair trees. Coming to an anchor, eight Indians in a baske shallop, with mast and sail, came boldly aboard us. It seemed by their signs, and such 1 The name of Gosnoll is elsewhere spelled Gosnold. 1 2 8 STORIES OF DISCO VER V. things as they had, some Biskiners had fished there ; being about the latitude of 43 '^. But the harbor being nought, and doubting the weather, we went not ashore, but weighed, and stood to the southward into the sea. The next morning we found ourselves embayed with a mighty headland ; within a league of the shore we an- chored, and Captain Gosnoll, myself,^ and three others went to it in a boat, being a white sand and a bold coast. Though the weather was hot, we marched to the highest hills we could see; where we perceived the headland part of the main near environed with islands. As we were returning to our ship, a good, proper, lusty young man came to us, with w^hom we had but small confer- ence, and so we left him. Here in five or six hours we took more cod than we knew what to do with, which made us persuade ourselves there might be found a good fishing in March, April, and May. At length we came among these fair isles, some a league, or two, three, five, or six from the main ; by one of them we anchored. We found it four miles in com- pass, without house or inhabitant. In it is a lake near a mile in circuit ; the rest is overgrown with trees, which, so well as the bushes, were so overgrown with vines we could scarce pass them ; and by the blossoms we might perceive there would be plenty of strawberries, respises, gooseberries, and divers other fruits : besides deer and other beasts we saw, and cranes, herons with divers other sorts of fowl ; which made us call it Martha's Vineyard. The rest of the isles are replenished with such like ; very rocky, and much-tinctured stone-like mineral. Though we met many Indians, yet we could not see 1 This is written by John Brierton, one of the voyagers. ELIZABETH'S ISLE. 1 29 their habitations ; they gave us fish, tobacco, and such things as they had. But the next isle we arrived at was but two leagues from the main, and sixteen miles about, environed so with creeks and coves it seemed like many isles linked together by small passages like bridges. In it are many places of plain grass, and such other fruits and berries as before were mentioned. In mid-May we did sow wheat, barley, oats, and pease, which in fourteen days sprung up nine inches. The soil is fat and lusty, the crust whereof gray, a foot or less in depth. It is full of high timbered oaks, their leaves thrice so broad as ours ; cedar straight and tall, beech, holly, walnut, hazel, cherry-trees like ours, but the stalk beareth the blossom or fruit thereof like a cluster of grapes, forty or fifty in a bunch. There is a tree of orange color, whose bark in the filing is as smooth as velvet. There is a lake of fresh water three miles in compass, in the midst an isle containing an acre or thereabouts overgrown with wood ; here are many tortoises, and abundance of all sorts of fowls, whose young ones we took and eat at our pleasure. Ground-nuts as big as eggs, as good as potatoes and forty on a string, not two inches under ground. All sorts of shellfish, as scollops, mussels, cockles, crabs, lobsters, welks, oysters, exceeding good and very great ; but, not to cloy you with particulars, what God and nature hath bestowed on those places, I refer you to the author's own writing at large. We called this place Elizabeth's Isle, from whence we went right over to the main, where we stood for a while as ravished at the beauty and delicacy of the sweetness, besides divers clear lakes, whereof we saw no end, and meadows very large and full of green grass. 9 130 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. Here we espied seven savages ; at first they expressed some fear, but by our courteous usage of them they followed us to the neck of land, which we thought had been severed from the main, but we found it otherwise. Here we imagined was a river, but because the day was far spent, we left to discover it till better leisure. But of good harbors there is no doubt, considering the land is all rocky and broken lands. The next day we deter- mined to fortify ourselves in the isle in the lake. Three weeks we spent in building us there a house. But the sec- ond day after our coming from the main, eleven canoes with near fifty savages came towards us. Being unwilling they should see our building, we went to, and exchanged with them knives, hatchets, beads, bells, and such trifles, for some beavers, lizards, martins, foxes, wild cat-skins, and such like. We saw them have much red copper, whereof they make chains, collars, and drinking cups, which they so little esteemed they would give them us for small toys, and signified unto us they had it out of the earth in the main. Three days they stayed with us, but every night retired two or three miles from us ; afterwards with many signs of love and friendship they departed, seven of them staying behind, that did help us to dig and carry sassafras and do anything they could, being of comely proportion and the best condition of any savages we had yet encountered. They have no beards but counterfeits, as they did think ours also were, for which they would have changed with some of our men that had great beards. Some of the baser sort would steal ; but the better sort we found very civil and just. We saw but three of their women, and they were but of mean stature, attired in skins like the men, but fat and well-favored. The wholesomeness and CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH JAMESTOWN, 131 temperature of this climate doth not only argue the people to be answerable to this description, but also of a perfect constitution of body, active, strong, healthful, and very witty, as the sundry toys by them so cun- ningly wrought may well testify. For ourselves, we found ourselves rather increase in health and strength than otherwise ; for all our toil, bad diet and lodging, yet not one of us was touched by any sickness. Twelve intended here awhile to have stayed, but upon better consideration, how meanly we were provided, we left this island (with as many true sorrowful eyes as were before desirous to see it) the i8th of June, and arrived at Exmouth the 23d of July. Rather more interesting than Bartholomew Gosnoll was thought the account of Jamestown and Captain John Smith himself, and of Pocahontas. THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AT JAMESTOWN. It might well be thought a country so fair (as Vir- ginia is) and a people so tractable would long ere this have been quietly possessed, to the satisfaction of the adventurers, and the eternizing of the memory of those that eifected it. But because all the world do see a defailment, this following treatise shall give satisfac- tion to all indifferent readers, how the business hath been carried ; where no doubt they will easily under- stand and answer to their question, how it came to pass there was no better speed and success in those proceed- ings. Captain Bartholomew Gosnoll, one of the first movers of this plantation, having many years solicited many of his friends, but found small assistance, at last 132 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, prevailed with some gentlemen, as Captain John Smith, Mr. Edward-Maria Wingfield, Mr. Robert Hunt, and divers others, who depended a year upon his projects ; but nothing could be effected, till by their great charge and industry it came to be apprehended by certain of the nobility, gentry, and merchants, so that his Majesty by his letters-patent gave commission for establishing councils, to direct here ; and to govern, and to execute these. To effect this was spent another year, and by that, three ships were provided, one of one hundred tons, another of forty, and a pinnace of twenty. The transportation of the company was committed to Cap- tain Christopher Newport, a mariner well practised for the western parts of America. But their orders for government were put in a box, not to be opened, nor the governors known, until they arrived in Virginia. On the 19th of December, 1606, we set sail from Blackwall, but by unprosperous winds were kept six weeks in the sight of England ; all which time Mr. Hunt our preacher was so weak and sick that few expected his recovery. Yet although he was but twenty miles from his habitation (the time we were in the Downs), and notwithstanding the stormy weather, nor the scandalous imputations (of some few, little bet- ter than Atheists, of the greatest rank amongst us) suggested against him, all this could never force from him so much as a seeming desire to leave the business, but preferred the service of God in so good a voyage, before any affection to contest with his godless foes, whose disastrous designs (could they have prevailed) had even then overthrown the business, so many dis- contents did then arise, had he not with the water of patience, and his godly exhortations, but chiefly by his CAPE HENRY. 1 33 true devoted examples, quenched those flames of envy and dissension. We watered at the Canaries, we traded with the sav- ages at Dominica \ three weeks we spent in refreshing ourselves amongst these West India Isles ; in Guada- loupe we found a bath so hot, as in it we boiled pork as well as over the fire. And at a little isle called Monica we took from the bushes, with our hands, near two hogsheads full of birds in three or four hours. In Mevis, Mona, and the Virgin Isles we spent some time, where, with a loathsome beast like a crocodile, called a gwayn,^ tortoises, pelicans, parrots, and fishes, we daily feasted. Gone from thence in search of Virginia, the company was not a little discomforted, seeing the mariners had three days passed their reckoning and found no land, so that Captain Ratcliffe (captain of the pinnace) rather desired to bear up the helm to return for England, than make further search. But God, the guider of all good actions, forcing them by an extreme storm to hull all night, did drive them by his providence to their desired port, beyond all their expectations, for never any of them had seen that coast. The first land they made they called Cape Henry ; where thirty of them, recreating themselves on shore, were assaulted by five savages, who hurt two of the English very danger- ously. That night was the box opened, and the orders read, in which Bartholomew Gosnoll, John Smith, Ed- ward Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall were named to be Council, and to choose a President amongst them for a year, who with the Council should govern. Matters of moment were to be examined by a jury, but determined 1 An iguana. 134 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. by the major part of the Council, in which the President had two voices. Until the 13th of May they sought a place to plant in ; then the Council was sworn, Mr. Wingfield was chosen President, and an oration made, why Captain Smith was not admitted of the Council as the rest. Now falleth every man to work, the Council contrive the fort, the rest cut down trees to make place to pitch their tents ; some provide clapboards to relade the ships, some make gardens, some nets, etc. The sav- ages often visited us kindly. The President's over- weening jealousy would admit no exercise at arms or fortification, but the boughs of trees cast together in the form of a half-moon by the extraordinary pains and diligence of Captain Kendall. Newport, Smith, and twenty others were sent to discover the head of the river. By divers small habitations they passed ; in six days they arrived at a town called Powhatan, consisting of some twelve houses, pleasantly seated on a hill ; be- fore it three fertile islands, about it many of their corn- fields. The place is very pleasant and strong by nature. Of this place the prince is called Powhatan, and his people Powhatans ; to this place the river is navigable. But higher within a mile, by reason of the rocks and isles, there is no passage for a small boat ; this they call the falls. The people in all parts kindly entreated them, till, being returned within twenty miles of Jamestown, they gave just cause of jealousy. But had God not blessed the discoveries otherwise than those at the fort, there had been an end of that plantation ; for at the fort, where they arrived the next day, they found seven- teen men hurt, and a boy slain by the savages, and had it not chanced a cross-bar shot from the ships struck RETURN OF NEWPORT, 135 down a bough from a tree amongst them, that caused them to retire, our men had all been slain, being securely all at work and their arms in dry fats. Hereupon the President was contented the fort should be palisadoed, the ordnance mounted, his men armed and exercised, for many were the assaults and ambuscadoes of the savages, and our men by their dis- orderly straggling were often hurt, when the savages, by the nimbleness of their heels, well escaped. What toil we had, with so small a power to guard our workmen adays, watch all night, resist our enemies, and effect our business, to relade the ships, cut down the trees, and prepare the ground to plant our corn, etc., I refer to the reader's consideration. Six weeks being spent in this manner, Captain Newport (who was hired only for our transportation) was to return with the ships. Now Captain Smith, who all this time from their departure from the Canaries was restrained as a prisoner upon the scandalous suggestions of some of the chief (envy- ing his repute), who feigned he intended to usurp the government, murder the Council, and make himself king, that his confederates were dispersed in all the three ships, and that divers of his confederates that revealed it, would affirm it, for this he was committed as a prisoner. Thirteen weeks he remained thus sus- pected, and by that time the ships should return they pretended out of their commiserations, to refer him to the Council in England to receive a check, rather than by particulating his designs to make him so odious to the world, as to touch his life or to utterly overthrow his reputation. But he so much scorned their charity, and publicly defied the uttermost of their cruelty, he wisely prevented their policies, though he could not suppress 136 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. their envy, yet so well he demeaned himself in this busi- ness, as all the company did see his innocency^ and his adversaries' malice, and those suborned to accuse him accused his accusers of subornation. Many untruths were alleged against him ; but, being so apparently disproved, begat a general hatred in the hearts of the company against such unjust commanders, that the President was adjudged to give him ;^2oo, so that all he had was seized upon, in part of satisfaction, which Smith presently returned to the store for the general use of the colony. Many were the mischiefs that daily sprung from their ignorant (yet ambitious) spirits ; but the good doctrine and exhortation of our preacher, Mr. Hunt, reconciled them, and caused Captain Smith to be admitted of the Council ; the next day all re- ceived the Communion, the day following the savages voluntarily desired peace, and Captain Newport returned for England with news; leaving in Virginia one hun- dred, the 15th of June, 1607. CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS. The next voyage,^ he proceeded so far that with much labor by cutting of trees in sunder he made his passage, but when his barge could press no farther, he left her in a broad bay out of danger of shot, commanding none should go ashore till his return ; he himself with two English and two savages went up higher in a canoe, but he was not long absent, but his men went ashore, whose want of government gave both occasion and opportunity to the savages to surprise one George Cassen, whom they slew, and much failed not to have cut off the boat and 1 Smith had been making exploring voyages on the river. CAPTURE OF CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, 1 37 all the rest. Smith, little dreaming of that accident, being got to the marshes at the river's head, twenty miles in the desert, had his two men slain (as is supposed) sleeping by the canoe, whilst himself by fowling sought them victual, who, finding he was beset with two hundred, two of them he slew, still defending himself with the aid of a savage his guide, whom he bound to his arm with his garters, and used him as a buckler ; yet he was shot in the thigh a little, and had many arrows stuck in his clothes, but no great hurt, till at last they took him pris- oner. When this news came to Jamestown, much was their sorrow for his loss, few expecting what ensued. Six or seven weeks those barbarians kept him prisoner. Many strange triumphs and conjurations they made of him, yet he so demeaned himself amongst them, as he not only diverted them from surprising the fort, but pro- cured his own liberty, and got himself and his company such estimation amongst them that those savages ad- mired him more than their own Quiyoucko sucks. The manner how they used and delivered him is as follow^eth. The savages having drawn from George Cassen whither Captain Smith was gone, prosecuting that op- portunity they followed him with three hundred bowmen, conducted by the King of Pamaonkee, who in divisions searching the turnings of the river, found Robinson and Emry by the fireside ; those they shot full of arrows and slew. Then finding the captain, as is said, that used the savage that was his guide as his shield (three of them being slain and divers others so galled), all the rest would not come near him. Thinking thus to have re- turned to his boat, regarding them, as he marched, more than his way, slipped up to the middle in an oozy creek and his savage with him, yet durst they not come to him 138 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. till, being near dead with cold, he threw away his arms. Then according to their composition they drew him forth and led him to the fire where his men were slain. Dili- gently they chafed his benumbed limbs. He demanding for their captain, they showed him Opechankanough, King of Pamaonkee, to whom he gave a round ivory double compass dial. Much they marvelled at the play- ing of the fly and needle, which they could see so plainly, and yet not touch it because of the glass which covered them. But when he demonstrated by that globe-like jewel the roundness of the earth, and skies, the sphere of the sun, moon, and stars, and how the sun did chase the night round about the world continually ; the greatness of the land and sea, the diversity of nations, variety of complexions, and how we were to them antipodes, and many other such like matters, they all stood as amazed with admiration. Notwithstanding, within an hour after they tied him to a tree, and as many as could stand about him prepared to shoot him ; but the king holding up the compass in his hand, they all laid down their bows and arrows, and in a triumphant manner led him to Orapates, where he was after their manner kindly feasted, and well used. Their order in conducting him was thus: drawing themselves all in file, the king in the midst had all their pieces and swords borne before him. Captain Smith was led after him by three great savages, holding fast by each arm ; but on arriving at the town (which was but thirty or forty hunting houses made of mats, which they remove as they please, as we our tents), all the women and children staring to behold him, the soldiers first all in file performed the form of a Bissom so well as could be j and on each flank, oflicers as sergeants to see them AMONG THE INDIANS, 1 39 keep their order. A good time they continued this exercise, and then cast themselves in a ring, dancing in such several postures, and singing and yelling out such hellish notes and screeches, being strangely painted, every one his quiver of arrows, and at his back a club ; on his arm a fox or otter's skin, or some such matter for his vambrace ; their heads and shoulders painted red, with oil and pocones mingled together, which scarlet-like color made an exceeding handsome show, his bow in his hand, and the skin of a bird with her wings abroad dried, tied on his head, a piece of copper, a white shell, a long feather, with a small rattle growing at the tails of their snakes tied to it, or some such like toy. All this while Smith and the king stood in the midst guarded, as before is said, and after three dances they all departed. Smith they conducted to a long house, where thirty or forty tall fellows did guard him, and ere long more bread and venison was brought him than would have served twenty men j I think his stomach at that time was not very good. What he left they put in baskets and tied over his head. About midnight they set the meat again before him ; all this time not one of them would eat a bit with him, tiH the next morning they brought him as much more, and then did they eat all the old, and reserved the new as they had done the other, which made him think they would fat him to eat him. Yet in this desperate estate, to defend him from the cold, one Maocassater brought him his gown, in re- quital of some beads and toys Smith had given him at his first arrival in Virginia. Two days after, a man would have slain him (but that the guard prevented it) for the death of his son, to whom they conducted him to recover the poor man then breath- I40 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. ing his last. Smith told them that at Jamestown he had a water would do it, if they would let him fetch it ; but they would not permit that, but made all the prepara- tions they could to assault Jamestown, craving his advice, and for recompense he should have life, liberty, land, and women. In part of a table book he wrote his mind to them at the fort, what was intended, how they should follow that direction to affright the messengers, and without fail send him such things as he writ for, and an inventory with them. The difficulty and danger he told the savages, of the mines, great guns, and other engines, exceedingly affrighted them ; yet according to his request they went to Jamestown, in as bitter weather as could be of frost and snow, and within three days returned with an answer. But when they came to Jamestown, seeing men sally out as he had told them they would, they fled ; yet in the night they came again to the same place where he had told them they should receive an answer, and such things as he had promised them, which they found ac- cordingly, and with which they returned no small ex- pedition, to the wonder of them all that heard it, that he could either divine, or the paper could speak. . . . Not long after, early in the morning a great fire was made in a long house, and a mat spread on one side, as on the other ; on the one they caused him to sit, and all the guard went out of the house, and presently came skipping in a great grim fellow, all painted over with coal, mingled with oil ; and many snakes' and weasels' skins stuffed with moss, and all their tails tied together, so as they met on the crown of his head in a tassel ; and round the tassel was a coronet of feathers, the skins hanging round about his head, back, and shoulders, A STRANGE CEREMONY, I4I and in a manner covered his face ; with a hellish voice and a rattle in his hand, with most strange gestures and passions, he began his invocation, and environed the fire with a circle of meal ; which done, three more such like devils came rushing in with the like antique tricks, painted half black, half red ; but all their eyes were painted white, and some red strokes like mustachios, along their cheeks ; round him those fiends danced a pretty while, and then came in three more, as ugly as the rest, with red eyes, and white strokes over their black faces. At last they all sat down right against him ; three of them on the one hand of the priest, and three on the other. Then all with their rattles began a song, which ended, the priest laid down five wheat corns ; then straining his arms and hands with such violence that he sweat and his veins swelled, he began a short oration j at the conclusion they all gave a short groan, and then laid down three grains more. After that, began their song again, and then another oration, ever laying down so many corns as before, till they had twice encircled the fire ; that done^ they took a bunch of little sticks prepared for that purpose, continuing still their devotion, and at the end of every song and oration they laid down a stick between the divisions of corn. Till night, neither he nor they did either eat or drink, and then they feasted merrily, with the best provision they could make. Three days they used this ceremony ; the meaning whereof, they told him, was to know if he in- tended them well or no. The circle of meal signified their country, the circles of corn the bounds of the sea, and the sticks his country. They imagined the world to be fiat and round, like a trencher, and they in the midst. After this they brought him a bag of gunpowder, which 142 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, they carefully preserved till the next spring, to plant as they do their corn ; because they would be acquainted with the nature of that seed. Opitchapam, the king's brother, invited him to his house, where, with as many platters of bread, fowl, and wild beasts as did environ him, he bid him welcome ; but not any of them would eat a bit with him, but put up all the remainder in baskets. At his return to Opechankanough's, all the king's women, and their children, flocked around him for their parts, as a due by custom, to be merry with such fragments. ... At last they brought him to Meronocomoco, where was Powhatan their emperor. Here more than two hundred of those grim courtiers stood wondering at him, as he had been a monster ; till Powhatan and his train had put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fire, upon a seat like a bedstead, he sat covered with a great robe, made of raccoon skins, and all the tails hanging by. On either hand did sit a young wench of sixteen or eighteen years, and along on each side the house two rows of men, and behind them as many women, with all their heads and shoulders painted red ; many of their heads bedecked with the white down of birds, but every one with something, and a great chain of white beads about their necks. At his entrance before the king all the people gave a great shout. The Queen of Appama- tuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel, to dry them ; having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they could, a long consultation was held, but the conclusion was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan ; then as many as could laid hands on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid P rlmj^hkr Fftfcalw>«ta s be^js his life h is tk^n ^ Unejs POCAHONTAS PLEADING FOR THE LIFE OF JOHN SMITH POWHATAN, 143 his head, and being ready with their clubs to beat out his brains, Pocahontas, the king^s dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms, and laid her own upon him to save him from death; whereat the emperor was contented he should live to make him hatchets, and her, bells, beads, and copper ; for they thought him as well of all occupations as themselves. For the king himself will make his own robe, shoes, bows, arrows, pots ; plant, hunt, or do any- thing, so well as the rest. Two days after, Powhatan having disguised himself in the most fearfulest manner he could, caused Captain Smith to be brought forth to a great house in the woods, and there upon a mat by the fire to be let alone. Not long after, from behind a mat that divided the house was made the most dolefulest noise he ever heard ; then Powhatan, more like a devil than a man, with some two hundred more as black as himself, came unto him and told him now they were friends, and presently should go to Jamestown, to send him two great guns, and a grind- stone, for which he would give him the country of Capahowosick, and forever esteem him as his son Nantaquoud. So to Jamestown with twelve guides Powhatan sent him. That night they quartered in the woods, he still expecting (as he had done all this long time of his imprisonment) every hour to be put to one death or other, for all their fasting. But Almighty God (by his divine providence) had mollified the hearts of those stern barbarians with compassion. The next morn- ing betimes they came to the fort, where Smithy having used the savages with what kindness he could, he showed Rawhunt, Powhatan's trusty servant, two demi-culverins and a millstone to carry to Powhatan. They found them 144 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. somewhat too heavy ; but when they did see him dis- charge them, being loaded with stones, among the boughs of a great tree loaded with icicles, the ice and branches came so tumbling down that the poor sav- ages ran away half dead with fear. But at last we re- gained some conference with them, and gave them such toys ; and sent to Powhatan, his women, and children such presents, and gave them in general full content. Now in Jamestown they were all in combustion, the strongest preparing once more to run away with the pin- nace ; which, with the hazard of his life, with saker, falcon, and musket shot, Smith forced now the third time to stay or sink. Some, no better than they should be, had plotted wath the President, the next day to have him put to death by the Levitical law, for the lives of Robinson and Emry,^ pretending the fault was his that had led them to their ends ; but he quickly took such order with such lawyers, that he laid them by the heels till he sent some of them prisoners for England. Now ever once in four or five days Pocahontas, with her attendants, brought him so much provision, that saved many of their lives that else for all this had starved with hunger. ^ The two men who had been killed when Smith was captured. VI. VOYAGES IN THE PACIFIC. FERGUS said that while he had read about Balboa seeing the Pacific from Panama, and knew " ever so long ago " that Magellan sailed round the world, excepting those two facts, the Pacific Ocean was a mystery to him. " It is to me," said Alice, " since you proved to me that dear old Robinson Crusoe never went there. I shall never forgive you for banishing him from Juan Fernandez." Miriam said that she was brought up in a family where there was much missionary literature. She said there was one volume of " Ellis's Polynesian Research- es " at her grandmother's, which they could and did read as a Sunday book ; and when other books were banished, unless edifying in their character, this book was permitted on the table. Happy the child who first secured it, and revelled in bread-fruit and cocoanut while the others were hammering on the less attractive learning in Calmet. " But this book," said Miriam, " never told how the missionaries came there. The last I knew of the Pacific was that the buccaneers were stealing gold and silver there." 10 146 S 7^0 R IBS OF DISCOVERY. "Yes/' said Fergus, " it was called the Pacific because there was always war there." " Precisely. One book closed with the buccaneers, and the next opened with the missionaries." Colonel Ingham said that, in rather a rough way, the young people's remark described the gulf which exists in general history about the Pacific. Seiior Zar- agoza, a distinguished Spanish scholar, has recently brought to light some of the old Spanish voyages there. The Dutch names of Van Diemen's Land and Tasma- nia are memorials of their early adventures and great discoveries. But in those days voyages were terribly long. Unless men brought home gold, and a great deal of it, accounts of balmy breezes or paradise islands did not deeply interest adventurers. The loss of life and of ships was terrible. Magellan sailed with five ships and two hundred and thirty-six men, in an expedition fitted out with every resource then known. Of them all, seventeen men returned under Sebastian del Cano, almost all ill from the results of the voyage. Of the five ships, the " Victoria" alone remained. Of Drake's great expedition, also of five vessels, only the "Pelican " came back with him to England. " When the South Sea Company was established in England, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, there was a revival of interest in the Pacific. That company had a right to send one ship a year into that great ocean. It is queer enough now to see that the one ship which they sent touched at California and discovered gold, * which we lost in our confusions in China.' Alas ! the South Sea Company blew up at home, — you know by what a terrible catastrophe. " I think," said Colonel Ingham, " that perhaps the VOYAGES IN THE PACIFIC. 1 47 very name South Sea, lingering in the memories of English people as a name connected with ruin and misery, checked for half a century much desire to explore the Pacific. "It was not till 1764, — just when the American troubles were beginning, — that the English government sent out Byron on a distinct voyage of discovery. It was a period of profound peace, — the French having ceded Canada to England the year before, — and the war which began with Braddock's defeat being thus triumphantly finished for England, thanks to the genius of Pitt. '* Byron was directed to explore the Falkland Islands, which had played an important part in the outbreak of the war with Spain. In his instructions, however, it was distinctly said that there was room to believe that between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan there might be found lands and very con- siderable islands, unknown till now to the powers of Europe, situated in latitudes convenient for navigation, and in climates fit for the production of different arti- cles useful to commerce. Nothing could contribute more to the glory of the nation and the dignity of the crown than such discoveries as were hoped for, the instructions said. For these discoveries first, and for the examination of the Falkland Islands next, Byron was commissioned." " I knew there was this Admiral Byron," said Walter, " and because we had a picture of Byron the poet, dressed as a sailor, I used to think they were the same man." Uncle Fritz laughed. " I believe the admiral was the great-uncle of the poet," he said. 148 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. " Byron made, on the whole, a prosperous voyage. He sailed round the world in less than two years. He discovered some islands in the Pacific before unknown, and everybody was interested in his success. ^' Six weeks after he returned, his vessel, the ' Dau- phin,' was put in commission again, and another voyage was begun. Wallis was put in command, — the same, Blanche, with whom your great-grandfather served at the capture of Louisburg.'' Blanche blushed, for she never knew before that her great-grandfather was at the capture of Louisburg. In- deed, she did not know his name, although she knew she must have had four great-grandfathers. '^ In this voyage was discovered, among other things, Pitcairn's Island, as I hope you remember.^ Wallis made a long stay at Tahiti, of which he took pos- session, calling it George III.'s Island. Carteret, his second, was separated from him, and made another set of discoveries of his own. Wallis returned to England at the end of two years, arriving in May, 1768. Carteret did not come home till March, 1769. '' As soon as Wallis returned, another expedition was fitted out, under Cook, whose name has become so celebrated. He sailed on his first voyage in August, 1768. " But I am talking too long," said Colonel Ingham. " Here are some passages I have marked in the differ- ent reports. You will be apt to come back to them. '' The abridgment of Cook's voyages is a wretchedly dull book. But there are very good plums in the somewhat stilted narrative, before the ' abridgers ' got hold of it. Always distrust an abridgment.''^ 1 See '' Stories of the Sea," p. 192, rOVAGES IN THE PACIFIC. 1 49 AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE ISLANDERS, IN CAPTAIN CARTERET'S VOYAGE. Our men had not long returned on board,^ when we saw three of the natives sit down under the trees abreast of the ship. As they continued gazing at us till the afternoon, as soon as the cutter came in sight, not caring that both the boats should be absent at the same time, I sent my lieutenant in the long-boat, with a few beads, ribbons, and trinkets, to endeavor to establish some kind of intercourse with them, and by their means with the rest of the inhabitants ; these men, however, before the boat could reach the shore, quitted their station, and proceeded along the beach. As the trees would soon prevent their being seen by our people, who were making toward the land, we kept our eyes fixed upon them from the ship, and very soon perceived that they were met by three others. After some conversation, the first three went on, and those who met them proceeded towards the boat with a hasty pace. Upon this I made the signal to the lieutenant to be upon his guard ; and, as soon as he saw the Indians, observing that there were no more than three, he backed the boat in to the shore, and making a sign of friendship, held up to them the beads and ribbons which I had given him as presents, our people at the same time carefully concealing their arms. The In- dians, however, taking no notice of the beads and rib- bons, resolutely advanced within bow-shot, and then suddenly discharged their arrows, which happily went over the boat without doing any mischief ; they did not 1 Aug. 13, 1767. 1 5 O STORIES OF DISCO VER K prepare for a second discharge, but instantly ran away into the woods, and our people discharged some mus- kets after them, but none of them were wounded by the shot. Soon after this happened, the cutter came under the ship's side, and the first person that I partic- ularly noticed was the master, with three arrows stick- ing in his body. No other evidence was necessary to convict him of having acted contrary to my orders, which appeared indeed more fully from his own account of the matter, which it is reasonable to suppose was as favorable to himself as he could make it. He said that having seen some Indian houses with only five or six of the inhabitants, at a place about fourteen or fifteen miles to the westward of the ship's station where he had sounded some bays, he came to a grappling, and veered the boat to the beach, where he landed with four men, armed with muskets and pistols ; that the Indians at first were afraid of him, and retired, but that soon after they came down to him, and he gave them some beads and other trifles, with which they seemed to be much pleased ; that he then made signs to them for some cocoanuts, which they brought him, and with great appearance of friendship and hospitality gave him a broiled fish and some boiled yams ; that he then proceeded with his party to the houses, which, he said, were not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the water side, and soon after saw a great number of canoes coming round the western point of the bay, and many Indians among the trees ; that, being alarmed at these appearances, he hastily left the house where they had been received, and with the men made the best of his way towards the boat ; but that, before he could get on board, the Indians attacked as well those that were A REPULSE. 151 with him as those that were in the boat, both from the canoes and the shore. Their number, he said, was between three and four hundred ; their weapons were bows and arrows ; the bows were six feet five inches long, and the arrows four feet four, which they dis- charged in platoons, as regularly as the best disciplined troops in Europe; that it being necessary to defend himself and his people when they were thus attacked, they fired among the Indians to favor their getting into their boat, and did great execution, killing many and wounding more ; that they were not, however, discour- aged, but continued to press forward, still discharging their arrows by platoons in almost one continued flight ; that the grappling, being foul, occasioned a delay in hauling off the boat, during which time he and half of the boat's crew were desperately wounded ; that at last they cut the rope, and ran off under their foresail, still keeping up their fire with blunderbusses, each loaded with eight or ten pistol balls, which the Indians re- turned with their arrows, those on shore wading after them breast high into the sea ; when they had got clear of these, the canoes pursued them with great fortitude and vigor, till one of them was sunk, and the numbers on board the rest greatly reduced by the fire, and then they returned to the shore. Such was the story of the master, who, with three of my best seamen, died some time afterwards of the wounds they had received ; but culpable as he appears to have been by his. own account, he appears to have been still more so by the testimony of those with him who survived. They said that the Indians behaved with the greatest confidence and friendship till he gave them just cause of offence, by ordering the people that 152 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. were with him who had been regaled in one of their houses to cut down a cocoanut-tree, and insisting upon the execution of his order, notwithstanding the displeas- ure which the Indians strongly expressed upon the oc- casion. As soon as the tree fell, all of them except one, who seemed to be a person of authority, went away; and in a short time a great number of them were ob- served to draw together into a body among the trees, by a midshipman who was one of the party that were on shore, and who immediately acquainted the master with what he had seen, and told him that, from the be- havior of the people, he imagined an attack was in- tended ; that the master made light of the intelligence, and instead of repairing immediately to the boat, as he was urged to do, fired one of his pistols at a mark ; that the Indian who had till that time continued with them then left them abruptly, and joined the body in the wood; that the master, even after this, by an infatua- tion that is altogether unaccountable, continued to trifle away his time on shore, and did not attempt to recover the boat till the attack was begun. MATAVAI.i We were so delayed that in the morning of April 12th [1769] we were but little nearer than we had been the night before ; but about seven a breeze sprung up, and before eleven several canoes were seen making towards the ship. There were but few of them, however, that would come near; and the people in those that did, could not be persuaded to come on board. In every canoe there were young plantains, and branches of a 1 From Cook's Voyages. MATAVAL 153 tree which the Indians call E^ Midbo ; these, as we after- ward learnt, were brought as tokens of peace and amity, and the people in one of the canoes handed them up the ship's side, making signals at the same time with great earnestness, which we did not immediately understand ; at length we guessed that they wished these symbols should be placed in some conspicuous part of the ship ; we therefore immediately stuck them among the rigging, at which they expressed the greatest satisfaction. We then purchased their cargoes, consisting of cocoanuts and various kinds of fruit, which after our long voyage were very acceptable. We stood on with an easy sail all night, with sound- ings from twenty-two fathom to twelve, and about seven o'clock in the morning we came to an anchor in thirteen fathom, in Port Royal Bay, called by the natives Mata- vai. We were immediately surrounded by the natives in their canoes, who gave us cocoanuts, fruit resembling apples, bread-fruit, and some small fishes, in exchange ^for beads and other trifles. They had with them a pig, which they would not part with for anything but a hatchet, and therefore we refused to purchase it; be- cause, if we gave them a hatchet for a pig now, we knew they would never afterwards sell one for less, and we could not aiford to buy as many as it was probable we should want at that price. Among others who came off to the ship was an elderly man, whose name, as we learnt afterwards, was Owhaw, and who was immediately known to Mr. Gore, and sev- eral others who had been here with Captain Wallis ; as I was informed that he had been very useful to them, I took him on board the ship with some others, and was particularly attentive to gratify him, as I hoped he might also be useful to us. 1 5 4 STORIES OF DISCO VER K As our stay here was not likely to be very short, and as it was necessary that the merchandise which we had brought for traffic with the natives should not diminish in its value, which it certainly would have done if every person had been left at liberty to give what he pleased for such things as he should purchase, at the same time that confusion and quarrels must necessarily have arisen from there being no standard at market, I drew up a code of rules and ordered that they should be punctually observed. . . . As soon as the ship was properly secured, I went on shore with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, a party of men under arms, and our friend Owhaw. We were received from the boat by some hundreds of the inhabitants, whose looks at least gave us welcome, though they were struck with such awe that the first who approached us crouched so low that he almost crept upon his hands and knees. It is remarkable that he, like the people in the canoes, presented to us the same symbol of peace that is known to have been in use among the ancient and mighty nations of the northern hemisphere, — the green branch of a tree. We received it with looks and gestures of kindness and satisfaction ; and, observing that each of them held one in his hand, we immediately gathered every one a bough, and carried it in our hands in the same manner. They marched with us about half a mile towards the place where the " Dolphin " had watered, conducted by Owhaw ; they then made a full stop, and, having laid the ground bare by clearing away all the plants that grew upon it, the principal persons among them threw their green branches upon the naked spot, and made signs that we should do the same; we immediately ARCADIA. 15s showed our readiness to comply, and, to give a greater solemnity to the rite, the mariners were drawn up, and, marching in order, each dropped his bough upon those of the Indians, and we followed their example. We then proceeded, and when we came to the watering- place it was intimated to us by signs that we might oc- cupy that ground, but it happened not to be fit for our purpose. During our walk they had shaken off their first timid sense of our superiority, and were become familiar ; they went with us from the watering-place and took a circuit through the woods. As we went along, we distributed beads and other small presents among them, and had the satisfaction to see that they were much gratified. Our circuit was not less than four or five miles, through groves of trees which were loaded with cocoanuts and bread-fruit, and afforded the most grateful shade. Under these trees were the habitations of the people, most of them being only a roof wdthout walls, and the whole scene realized the poetical fables of Arcadia. We remarked, however, not without some regret, that in all our walk we had seen only two hogs, and not a single fowl. Those of our company who had been here with the " Dolphin " told us that none of the people whom we had yet seen were of the first class ; they suspected that the chiefs had removed, and upon carrying us to the place where what they called the queen's palace had stood, we found that no traces of it were left. We determined, therefore, to return in the morning and endeavor to find out the 7ioblesse in their retreats. 156 STORIES OF DISC OVER Y^ A LANDING IN NEW ZEALAND. On the 7th of October [1769] it fell calm; we there- fore approached the land slowly, and in the afternoon, when a breeze sprung up, we were still distant seven or eight leagues. It appeared still larger as it was more distinctly seen, with four or five ranges of hills, rising one over the other, and a chain of mountains above all, which appeared to be of an enormous height. This land became the subject of much eager conversation; but the general opinion seemed to be that we had found the Terra Australis incognita. About five o'clock we saw the opening of a bay, which seemed to run pretty far inland, upon which we hauled our wind and stood in for it ; we also saw smoke ascending from different places on shore. When night came on, however, we kept ply- ing off and on till daylight, when we found ourselves to the leeward of the bay, the wind being at north. We could now perceive that the hills were clothed with wood, and that some of the trees in the valleys were very large. By noon we fetched in with the southwest point, but not being able to weather it, tacked and stood ofE : at this time we saw several canoes standing across the bay, which in a little time made to shore, without seeming to take the . least notice of the ship ; we also saw some houses, which appeared to be small but neat, and near one of them a considerable number of the people col- lected together, who were sitting upon the beach, and who, we thought, were the same that we had seen in the canoes. Upon a small peninsula, at the northeast head, we could plainly perceive a pretty high and regular pal- CAPTAIN COOK ATTACKED BY NATIVES INHOSPITABLE RECEPTION. 1 57 ing, which enclosed the whole top of a hill ; this was also the subject of much speculation, some supposing it to be a park of deer, others an enclosure for oxen and sheep. About four o'clock in the afternoon we an- chored on the northwest side of the bay, before the entrance of a small river, in ten fathom water, with a fine sandy bottom, and at about half a league from the shore. The sides of the bay are white cliffs of a great height ; the middle is low land, with hills gradually ris- ing behind, one towering above another, and terminating in the chain of mountains which appeared to be far inland. In the evening I went on shore, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, with the pinnace and yawl and a party of men. We landed abreast of the ship, on the east side of the river, which was here about forty yards broad ; but seeing some natives on the west side whom I wished to speak with, and finding the river not forda- ble, I ordered the yawl in to carry us over, and left the pinnace at the entrance. When we came near the place where the people were assembled, they all ran away; however, we landed, and leaving four boys to take care of the yawl, we walked up to some huts which were about two or three hundred yards from the w^ater side. When we had got some distance from the boat, four men, armed with long lances, rushed out of the woods, and, running up to attack the boat, would certainly have cut her off if the people in the pinnace had not discov- ered them, and called to the boys to drop down the stream. The boys instantly obeyed ; but, being closely pursued by the Indians, the cockswain of the pinnace, who had the charge of the boats, fired a musket over their heads; at this they stopped and looked round 158 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, ' them, but in a few minutes renewed the pursuit, bran- dishing their lances in a threatening manner. The cockswain then fired a second musket over their heads, but of this they took no notice ; and one of them lifting up his spear to dart it at the boat, another piece was fired, which shot him dead. When he fell, the other three stood motionless for some minutes, as petrified with astonishment; as soon as they recovered, they went back, dragging after them the dead body, which^ however, they soon left, that it might not encumber their flight. At the report of the first musket we drew to- gether, having straggled to a little distance from each other, and made the best of our way back to the boat ; and, crossing the river, we soon saw the Indian lying dead upon the ground. Upon examining the body, we found that he had been shot through the heart. He was a man of the middle size and stature ; his complex- ion was brown, but not very dark, and one side of his face was tattooed in spiral lines of a very regular figure. He was covered with a fine cloth, of a manufacture alto- gether new to us, and it was tied on exactly according to the representation in Valentyn's account of Abel Tas- man's Voyage.^ His hair also was tied in a knot on the top of his head, but had no feather in it. We returned immediately to the ship, where we could hear the people on shore talking with great earnestness, and in a very loud tone, probably about what had happened and what should be done. In the morning we saw several of the natives where they had been seen the night before, and some walking with a quick pace towards the place where we had landed, most of them unarmed, but three or four with 1 Vol. iii. pt. 2, p. 50. NE W ZEALAND. 1 59 long pikes in their hands. As I was desirous to estab- lish an intercourse with them, I ordered three boats to be manned with seamen and marines, and proceeded towards the shore, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. So- lander, the other gentlemen, and Tupia.-^ About fifty of them seemed to wait for our landing, on the opposite side of the river, which we thought a sign of fear, and seated themselves upon the ground ; at first, therefore, myself, with only Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and Tupia, landed from the little boat and advanced towards them ; but we had not proceeded many paces before they all started up, and every man produced either a long pike or a small weapon of green talc, extremely well polished, about a foot long, and thick enough to weigh four or five pounds. Tupia called to them in the language of Ota- heite, but they answered only by flourishing their weap- ons and making signs to us to depart. A musket was then fired wide of them and the bail struck the water, the river being still between us. They saw the effect, and desisted from their threats ; but we thought it pru- dent to retreat till the marines could be landed. This was soon done ; and they marched, with a jack carried before them, to a little bank about fifty yards from the waterside. Here they were drawn up, and I again advanced, with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander; Tupia, Mr. Green, and Mr. Monkhouse being with us. Tupia was again directed to speak to them, and it was with great pleasure that we perceived he was perfectly un- derstood, he and the natives speaking only different dialects of the same language. He told them that we 1 Tupia was a native of Tahiti, a priest, who had volunteered to accom- pany Cook's party, and served as an interpreter. He was accompanied by a boy of thirteen years of age, named Tayeto. l60 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, wanted provision and water, and would give them iron in exchange, the properties of which he explained as well as he was able. They were willing to trade, and desired that we would come over to them for that pur- pose. To this we consented, provided they would lay by their arms, which, however, they could by no means be persuaded to do. During this conversation Tupia warned us to be upon our guard, for that they were not our friends. We then pressed them in our turn to come over to us, and at last one of them stripped him- self and swam over without his arms; he was almost immediately followed by two more, and soon after by most of the rest, to the number of twenty or thirty ; but these brought their arms with them. We made them all presents of iron and beads ; but they seemed to set little value upon either, particularly the iron, not having the least idea of its use, so that we got nothing in re- turn but a few feathers. They offered, indeed, to ex- change their arms for ours, and, when we refused, made many attempts to snatch them out of our hands. As soon as they came over, Tupia repeated his declaration that they were not our friends, and again warned us to be upon our guard ; their attempts to snatch our weap- ons, therefore, did not succeed ; and we gave them to understand by Tupia that we should be obliged to kill them if they offered any farther violence. In a few minutes, however, Mr. Green happening to turn about, one of them snatched away his hanger, and, retiring to a little distance, waved it round his head with a shout of exultation. The rest now began to be extremely in- solent, and we saw more coming to join them from the opposite side of the river. It was becoming necessary to repress them, and Mr. Banks fired at the man who NEW SOUTH WALES. l6l had taken the hanger, with small shot, at the distance of about fifteen yards. When the shot struck him, he ceased his cry; but, instead of returning the hanger, continued to flourish it over his head, at the same time slowly retreating to a greater distance. Mr. Monkhouse, seeing this, fired at him with a ball, and he instantly dropped. Upon this the main body, who had retired to a rock in the middle of the river upon the first discharge, began to return \ two that were near to the man who had been killed ran up to the body ; one seized his weapon of green talc, and the other endeavored to secure the hanger, which Mr. Monkhouse had but just time to pre- vent. As all that had retired to the rock were now ad- vancing, three of us discharged our pieces, loaded only with small shot, upon which they swam back for the shore ; and we perceived, upon their landing, that two or three of them were wounded. They retired slowly up the country, and we re-embarked in our boats. A LANDING IN NEW SOUTH WALES, BOTANY BAY. After dinner ^ the boats were manned, and we set out from the ship, having Tupia of our party. We intended to land where we saw the people, and began to hope that as they had so little regarded the ship's coming into the bay, they would as little regard our coming on shore : in this, however, we were disappointed ; for as soon as we approached the rocks, two of the men came down upon them to dispute our landing, and the rest ran away. Each of the two champions was armed with a lance about ten feet long, and a short stick which he seemed to handle as if it was a machine to assist him in managing ' April 28, 1770, II 1 62 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. or throwing the lance. They called to us in a very loud tone, and in a harsh dissonant language, of which neither we nor Tupia understood a single word ; they bran- dished their weapons, and seemed resolved to defend their coast to the uttermost, though they were but two, and we were forty. I could not but admire their cour- age, and being very unwilling that hostilities should commence with such inequality of force between us, I ordered the boat to lie upon her oars ; we then parleyed by signs for about a quarter of an hour, and to bespeak their good-will I threw them nails, beads, and other trifles, which they took up and seemed to be well pleased with. I then made signs that I wanted water, and, by all the means that I could devise, endeavored to con- vince them that we would do them no harm ; they now waved to us, and I was willing to interpret it as an invi- tation ; but upon our putting the boat in, they came again to oppose us. One appeared to be a youth about nineteen or twenty, and the other a man of middle age ; as I had now no other resource, I fired a musket be- tween them. Upon the report, the youngest dropped a bundle of lances upon the rock, but recollecting himself in an instant he snatched them up again with great haste ; a stone was then thrown at us, upon which I ordered a musket to be fired with small shot, which struck the eldest upon the legs, and he immediately ran to one of the houses, which was distant about an hun- dred yards. I now hoped that our contest was over, and we immediately landed; but we had scarcely left the boat when he returned, and we then perceived that he had left the rock only to fetch a shield or target for his defence. As soon as he came up, he threw a lance at us, and his comrade another ; they fell where we stood A VISIT TO THE HUTS. 1 63 thickest, but happily hurt nobody. A third musket with small shot was then fired at them, upon which one of them threw another lance, and both immediately ran away ; if we had pursued, we might probably have taken one of them ; but Mr. Banks suggesting that the lances might be poisoned, I thought it not prudent to venture into the woods. We repaired immediately to the huts, in one of which we found the children, who had hidden themselves behind a shield and some bark ; we peeped at them, but left them in their retreat, without their knowing that they had been discovered, and we threw into the house, when we went away, some beads, ribbons, pieces of cloth, and other presents, which we hoped would procure us the good-will of the inhabitants when they should return ; but the lances which we found lying about we took away with us, to the number of about fifty ; they were from six to fifteen feet long, and all of them had four prongs, in the manner of a fish- gig, each of which was pointed with fish-bone, and very sharp. We observed that they were smeared with a viscous substance of a green color, which favored the opinion of their being poisoned, though we afterwards discovered that it was a mistake ; they appeared, by the sea-weed that we found sticking to them, to have been used in striking fish. Upon examining the canoes that lay upon the beach, we found them to be the worst we had ever seen ; they were between twelve and fourteen feet long, and made of the bark of a tree in one piece, which was drawn together and tied up at each end, the middle being kept open by sticks which were placed across them from gunwale to gunwale as thwarts. We then searched for fresh water, but found none, except in a small hole which had been dug in the sand. 1 64 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, Having re-embarked in our boat, we deposited our lances on board the ship, and then went over to the north point of the bay, where we had seen several of the inhabitants when we were entering it, but which we now found totally deserted. Here, however, we found fresh water, which trickled down from the top of the rocks, and stood in pools among the hollows at the bottom ; but it was situated so as not to be procured for our use without dif5&culty. In the morning, therefore, I sent a party of men to that part of the shore where w^e first landed, with orders to dig holes in the sand where the water might gather ; but going ashore myself with the gentlemen soon after- wards, we found, upon a more diligent search, a small stream, more than sufficient for our purpose. Upon visiting the hut where we had seen the children, we were greatly mortified to find that the beads and ribbons which we had left there the night before had not been removed from their places, and that not an Indian was to be seen. Having sent some empty water-casks on shore, and left a party of men to cut wood, I went myself in the pinnace to sound, and examine the bay ; during my ex- cursion I saw several of the natives, but they all fled at my approach. In one of the places where I landed I found several small fires, and fresh mussels broiling upon them ; here also I found some of the largest oyster- shells I had ever seen. As soon as the wooders and waterers came on board to dinner, ten or twelve of the natives came down to the place, and looked with great attention and curiosity at the casks, but did not touch them ; they took away, however, the canoes which lay near the landing-place^ UNSOCIABLE NATIVES, 1 6$ and again disappeared. In the afternoon, when our people were again ashore, sixteen or eighteen Indians, all armed, came boldly within about an hundred yards of them, and then stopped ; two of them advanced some- what nearer ; and Mr. Hicks, who commanded the party on shore, with another, advanced to meet them, holding out presents to them as he approached, and expressing kindness and amity by every sign he could think of, but all without effect ; for before he could get up with them they retired, and it would have answered no purpose to pursue. In the evening I went with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to a sandy cove on the north side of the bay, where, in three or four hauls with the seine, we took above three hundred weight of fish, which was equally divided among the ship's company. The next morning, before daybreak, the Indians came down to the houses that were abreast of the ship, and were heard frequently to shout very loud. As soon as it was light, they were seen walking along the beach ; and soon after they retired to the woods, where, at the dis- tance of about a mile from the shore, they kindled several fires. Our people went ashore as usual, and with them Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, who, in search of plants, re- paired to the woods. Our men, who were employed in cutting grass, being the farthest removed from the main body of the people, a company of fourteen or fifteen Indians advanced towards them, having sticks in their hands, which, according to the report of the sergeant of the marines, shone like a musket. The grass-cutters, upon seeing them approach, drew together, and repaired to the main body. The Indians, being encouraged by this appearance of a flight, pursued them ; they stopped, 1 66 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. however, when they were within about a furlong of them, and after shouting several times went back into the woods. In the evening they came again in the same manner, stopped at the same distance, shouted, and re- tired. I followed them myself, alone and unarmed, for a considerable way along the shore, but I could not prevail upon them to stop. VII. THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE. THE girls who came earliest were looking over Jules Verne's three magnificent volumes of the "General History of Travels and Travellers/' In the French edition, this charming book is illustrated by very numerous drawings and maps, copied in most in- stances from old and rare books. It was with great pleasure that the girls found out that M. Verne is as in- teresting when he tells true stories as when he invents astonishing ones. And a little group established itself at the ColoneFs great tables, with each of the volumes, while waiting for the rest of the party to arrive. Fanchon said that there seemed to be epochs when voyages of discovery were in fashion. There would be a group of discoveries, and then would come a time when nothing would be discovered intentionally. Colonel Ingham said it was so ; but he told Fanchon that she would generally find that when there are no expeditions of discovery, it is because the great nations are at war. They are using their ships to destroy each other. "When peace comes, there are enterprising officers to be employed, and a nation where there is any public spirit fits out some expedition of discovery." Then he said that such a period was the long peace of Europe which began with 1815, and lasted, without a 1 68 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. great war for England, until the Crimean War. This period was a generation of mankind in which the Eng- lish army and navy had no war of such magnitude as to occupy any considerable part of either service. Very soon after the peace — under the lead of Sir James Barrow, who was a learned geographer — there grew up a feeling in England that the passage from Hudson's Bay, or Baffin's Bay, to the Pacific might be easier than was supposed. The Russian navigators had gone inside Behring's Strait. Mackenzie and Hearne had found the ocean at the mouth of the Mackenzie River and the Coppermine.^ As long ago as Baffin's time, in his little vessel, he had shown that his bay could be navigated far to the north and west. Whale- men frequented it freely in Sir John Barrow's time. Under his persuasion the English government sent out Ross and Parry in the year 1818 to search for the Northwest Passage, while Captain Buchan attempted the passage between Spitzbergen and Greenland. A passage to India by Baffin's Bay would be a north- west passage from England. After nearly thirty years poor Sir John Franklin died on his ship, having really passed through the Northwest Passage. But all his men died on that frozen shore. Before their bodies were discovered, Robert McClure and his crew, hav- ing sailed from Behring's Strait eastward to Baring's Island, passed over the ice to Barrow's Sound, and in another vessel returned to England. They are the only men, thus far, who have ever gone round America. A part of their voyage was on foot on the ice. To them, of course, the Northwest Passage was a northeast, east, and southeast passage. ^ " Stories of Adventure," p. 159. THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE, l6g That series of voyages — including the voyages made for the rescue of Sir John Franklin — is a very inter- esting series. The literature of it is comprised in many hundreds of volumes and pamphlets. From some of the earlier of these Uncle Fritz marked the following selections, which the children read one afternoon. But after that, for the whole winter, the boys were dipping into the narratives of Ross, Parry, Franklin, Back, Rae, Simpson, Dease, McClure, Collinson, Bel- cher, and other Englishmen ; and this led them to look up Dr. Kane, Dr. Hayes, Budington^s voyage, and those of Tyson and other American adventurers who have followed in the same direction* FROM PARRY'S VOYAGE OF 1819. Being favored at length [Aug. 13, 1819] by the east- erly breeze which was bringing up the ^'Griper," and for which we had long been looking with much impatience, a crowd of sail was set to carry us with all rapidity to the westward. It is more easy to imagine than to de- scribe the almost breathless anxiety which was now visi- ble in every countenance, while, as the breeze increased to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up the sound. The mast- heads were crowded by the officers and men during the whole afternoon ; and an unconcerned observer, if any could have been unconcerned on such an occasion, would have been amused by the eagerness with which the various reports from the crow's-nest were received, all, however, hitherto favorable to our most sanguine hopes. Between four and six p. m. we passed several rip- I/O STORIES OF DISCOVERY. plings on the water, as if occasioned by a weather tide, but no bottom could be found with the hand leads. Being now abreast of Cape Castlereagh, more distant land was seen to open out to the westward of it, and be- tween the cape and this land was perceived an inlet, to which I have given the name of the Navy Board's Inlet. We saw points of land apparently all round this inlet, but being at a very great distance from it, we were unable to determine whether it was continuous or not. But as the land on the western side appeared so much lower and smoother than that on the opposite side near Cape Cas- tlereagh, and came down so near the horizon, about the centre of the inlet, the general impression was, that it is not continuous in that part. As our business lay to the westward, however, and not to the south, the whole of this extensive inlet was, in a few hours, lost in distance. ... Our course was nearly due west, and the wind, still continuing to freshen, took us in a few hours nearly out of sight of the " Griper." The only ice which we met with consisted of a few large bergs, very much washed by the sea ; and, the weather being remarkably clear, so as to enable us to run with perfect safety, we were by midnight in a great nieasure relieved from our anxiety respecting the supposed continuity of land at the bot- tom of this magnificent inlet, having reached the longi- tude of 2*7,^ 12', where the two shores are still above thirteen leagues apart, without the slightest appearance of any land to the westward of us for four or five points of the compass. The color of the water having become rather lighter, we hove to at this time for the " Griper,'* and obtained soundings in one hundred and fifty fathoms on a muddy bottom. The wind increased so much as to make it necessary to close-reef the sails, and to get the SLUGGISH COMPASSES. 171 top-gallant yards down, and there was a breaking sea from the eastward. A great number of whales were seen in the course of this day's run. . . . Since the time we first entered Sir James Lancaster's Sound, the sluggishness of the compasses, as well as the amount of their irregularity produced by the attraction of the ship's iron, had been found very rapidly, though uniformly, to increase as we proceeded to the westward ; so much, indeed, that for the last two days we had been under the necessity of giving up altogether the usual observations for determining the variation of the needle on board the ships. This irregularity became more and more obvious as we now advanced to the southward. The rough magnetic bearing of the sun at noon, or at midnight, or when on the prime vertical, as compared with its true azimuth, was sufficient to render this increasing inefficiency of the compass quite ap- parent. For example, at noon this day, while we were observing the meridian altitude, the bearing of the sun was two points on the " Hecla's " larboard bow, and consequently her true course was about S.S.W. The binnacle and azimuth compasses at the same time agreed in showing N. N. W. ^ W., making the variation to be allowed on that course eleven points and a half westerly, corresponding nearly with an azi- muth taken on the following morning, which gave 137° 12'. It was evident, therefore, that a very ma- terial change had taken place in the dip, or the varia- tion, or in both these phenomena, since we had last an opportunity of obtaining observations upon them ; which rendered it not improbable that we were now making a very near approach to the magnetic pole. This supposi- tion was further strengthened on the morning of the 1/2 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, yth; when, having decreased our latitude to about 73°, we found that no alteration whatever, in the absolute course on which the " Hecla " was steering, produced a change of more than three or four points in the direc- tion indicated by the compass, which continued uni- formly from N. N. E., to N. N. W., according as the ship's head was placed on one side or the other of the magnetic meridian. We now, therefore, witnessed for the first time the curious phenomenon of the directive power of the needle becoming so weak as to be com- pletely overcome by the attraction of the ship ; so that the needle might now be properly said to point to the north pole of the ship. It was only, however, in those compasses in which the lightness of the cards, and great delicacy in the suspension, had been particularly at- tended to, that even this degree of uniformity prevailed ; for in the heavier cards, the friction upon the points of suspension was much too great to be overcome even by the ship's attraction, and they consequently remained indifferently in any position in which they happened to be placed. For the purposes of navigation, therefore, the compasses were from this time no longer consulted ; and in a few days afterward the binnacles were removed, as useless lumber, from the deck to the carpenter's store- room, where they remained during the rest of the season, the azimuth compass alone being kept on deck, for the purpose of watching any changes which might take place in the directive power of the needle : and the true cowrses and direction of the wind were in future noted in the log-book, as obtained to the nearest quarter point, when the sun was visible, by the azimuth of that object and the apparent time. . . . With the increasing width of the inlet, we had fiat- FITZGERALD BAY, 1 73 tered ourselves with increasing hopes ; but we soon experienced the mortification of disappointment. The prospect from the crow's-nest began to assume ^ a very unpromising appearance, the whole of the western hori- zon, from north round to S. b. E., being completely covered with ice, consisting of heavy and extensive floes, beyond which no indication of water was visible ; in- stead of which there was a bright and dazzling ice-blink extending from shore to shore. The western coast of the inlet, however, trended much more to the westward than before, and no land was visible to the southwest, though the horizon was so clear in that quarter, that, if any had existed of moderate height, it might have been easily seen at this time, at the distance of ten or twelve leagues. From these circumstances, the impression received at the time was, that the land, both on the eastern and western side of this inlet, would be one day found to consist of islands. As a fresh northerly breeze was drifting the ice rapidly towards Cape Kater, and there appeared to be no passage open between it and that cape, I did not consider it prudent, under pres- ent circumstances, to run the ships down to the point, or to attempt to force a passage through the ice, and therefore hauled to the wind with the intention of ex- amining a bay which was abreast of us, and to which I gave the name of Fitzgerald Bay, out of respect for Captain Robert Lewis Fitzgerald, of the Royal Navy. 1 Aug. 8, 1819. 174 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. DISCOVERY OF PRINCE REGENT^S INLET. This being the anniversary of the birthday of His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, it naturally sug- gested to us the propriety of honoring the large inlet, which we had been exploring, and in which we still were sailing, with the name of Prince Regent's Inlet. WORKING WESTWARD. August i8. There still being no prospect of getting a single mile to the westward, in the neighborhood of Prince Leopold's Islands, and a breeze having fresh- ened up from the eastward in the afternoon, I deter- mined to stand over once more towards the northern shore, in order to try what could there be done towards effecting our passage ; and at nine p. m., after beating for several hours among floes and streams of ice, we got into clear water near that coast, where we found some swell from the eastward. There was just light enough at mid- night to enable us to read and write in the cabin. . . . August 21. On the 21st we had nothing to impede our progress but the want of wind, the great opening, through which we had hitherto proceeded from Baffin's Bay, being now so perfectly clear of ice that it was almost impossible to believe it to be the same part of the sea, which, but a day or two before, had been com- pletely covered with floes to the utmost extent of our view. In the forenoon, being off a headland, which was named after Captain Thomas Hurd, hydrographer to the Admiralty, we picked up a small piece of wood which appeared to have been the end of a boat's yard, BRIDPORT INLET, 1 75 and which caused sundry amusing speculations among our gentlemen, some of whom had just come to the very natural conclusion that a ship had been here before us, and that, therefore, we were not entitled to the honor of the first discovery of that part of the sea on which we were now sailing, when a stop was suddenly put to this and other ingenious inductions by the information of one of the seamen, that he had dropped it out of his boat a fortnight before. I could not get him to recollect exactly the day on which it had been so dropped, but what he stated was sufficient to convince me that we were not at that time more than ten or twelve leagues from our present situation, perhaps not half so much ; and that, therefore, here was no current setting constantly in any one direction. A bay, to the northward and westward of Cape Hurd, was called Rigby Bay. . . . September 4. At noon we observed, in latitude 74° 54' 49", the longitude, by chronometers, being 108^ 31' 44", at which time we were off a low, sandy island, which was named after Mr. Dealy, and which lies near the entrance into a large inlet, to which the name of Bridport Inlet was given, from regard to the memory of the late Lord Bridport. This inlet runs a considera- ble distance to the northward, and seemed to afford good shelter for ships ; but, as we had no opportunity of examining it in our boats, I am unable to state any further particulars respecting it. The land to the west- ward of it, of which the most conspicuous part is a remarkable bluff headland, is much higher than that about Skene Bay; and we ceased to obtain any sound- ings with the hand leads after we had passed the en- trance of Bridport Inlet. At a quarter past nine p. m. we had the satisfaction of crossing the meridian of 110° west 176 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, of Greenwich, in the latitude of 74° 44' 20'' ; by which his Majesty's ships, under my orders, became entitled to the sum of five thousand pounds, being the reward offered by the king's order in council, grounded on a late act of Parliament, to such of his Majesty's subjects as might succeed in penetrating thus far to the westward within the Arctic Circle. In order to commemorate the success which had hitherto attended our exertions, the bluff head- land, which we had just passed, was subsequently called by the men Bounty Cape ; by which name I have, there- fore, distinguished it on the chart. As we stood to the westward, we found the extreme of the land in that direction to be a low point, which was named after Samuel Hearne, the well-known Amer- ican traveller, and to the northeastward of which is a bay of considerable extent, which was perfectly free from ice. We continued our course towards Cape Hearne till midnight, when the weather being too dark to run any longer with safety, the ships were hove to with their heads to the eastward. One black whale was seen, in the course of this day's navigation, off Bridport Inlet; and some flocks of snow-buntings were flying about the ship at night. . . . Having stood again to the westward, to take a nearer view of the ice, we perceived that it lay quite close in with Cape Hearne, notwithstanding the fresh northerly wind which for the last thirty-six hours had been blow- ing from the shore, and which had drifted the ice some distance to the southward, in every other part of the coast along which we had lately been sailing. This circumstance struck us very forcibly at the time, as an extraordinary one ; and it was a general remark among us, that the ice must either be aground in shoal water, THE MEN ENCOURAGED. 1 77 or that it butted against something to the southward which prevented its moving in that direction. Appear- ances being thus discouraging, nothing remained to be done but to stand off-and-on near the point, and care- fully to watch for any opening that might occur. After divine service had been performed, I assembled the officers, seamen, and marines of the " Hecla," and announced to them officially that their exertions had so far been crowned with success as to entitle them to the first prize in the scale of rewards granted by his Majesty's order in council above mentioned. I took this opportunity of impressing upon the minds of the men the necessity of the most strenuous exertions during the short remainder of the present season ; assuring them that, if w^e could penetrate a few degrees farther to the westward, before the ships were laid up for the winter, I had little doubt of our accomplishing the object of our enterprise before the close of the next season. I also addressed a letter to Lieutenant Liddon,^ to the same effect, and directed a small addition to be made to the usual allowance of meat, and some beer to be served, as a Sunday's dinner, on this occasion. The wind increasing to a fresh gale from the north- ward in the afternoon, and the ice still continuing to oppose an impenetrable barrier to our further progress, I determined to beat up to the northern shore of the bay, and, if a tolerable roadstead could be found, to drop our anchors till some change should take place. This was accordingly done at three p. m., in seven fathoms' water, the bottom being excellent holding- ground, composed of mud and sand, from which the lead could with difficulty be extricated. When we 1 In the "Griper." 12 178 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. veered to half a cable, we had ten fathoms' water under the "Hecla's'* stern, our distance from the northern shore being about a mile and a half. This roadstead, which I called the Bay of the Hecla and Griper, affords very secure shelter with the wind from E. N. E., round by north, to S. W., and we found it more free from ice than any other part of the southern coast of the island. . . • MELVILLE ISLANDS. September 6. I was beginning once more to indulge in those flattering hopes, of which often-repeated disap- pointments cannot altogether deprive us, when I per- ceived, from the crow's-nest, a compact body of ice extending completely in to the shore near the point which formed the western extreme. We ran sufficiently close to be assured that no passage to the westward could at present be effected, the floes being literally upon the beach, and not a drop of clear water being visible beyond them. I then ordered the ships to be made fast to a floe, being in eighty fathoms' water, at the distance of four or five miles from the beach. The season had now so far advanced as to make it absolutely necessary to secure the ships every night from ten till two o'clock, the weather being too dark during that interval to allow of our keeping under way in such a navigation as this, deprived as we were of the use of the compasses. But, however anxious the hours of darkness must necessarily be under such circumstances, the expe- rience of the former voyage had given us every reason to believe that the month of September would prove the most valuable period of the year for prosecuting our discoveries in these regions, on account of the sea being CHECKED BY ICE. 1 79 more dear from ice at this time than at any other. Feeling, therefore, as I did, a strong conviction that the ultimate accomplishment of our object must depend, in a great measure, on the further progress we should make this season, I determined to extend our opera- tions to the latest possible period. . . . The wind increased to a fresh gale from the north- ward during the night, and on the morning of the 12th flew round to the N. N. W. in a very violent gust. Soon after the ice began to drift past us to the eastward, at the rate of a mile an hour, and carried away with it the berg to which the "Hecla" had been attached on the 9th and loth ; so that we considered ourselves fortunate in having moved to our present berth, which was com- paratively a safe one. The "Griper" remained also tolerably secure, and well sheltered from the drifting ice, which, in the course of the forenoon, had acquired a velocity of more than a mile and a half per hour. In the afternoon the ice began by degrees to drift from the shore to the westward of us, but the wind blowing hard from the wrong quarter, it was impossible to think of moving the ships. A constant and vigilant lookout was also necessary, lest the berg to which our hawsers were secured should be forced off the ground, in which case we must inevitably have been driven back many miles to the eastward, and the labor of the last ten days would have been lost in a few hours. The night was cold and inclement, with a heavy fall of snow, which being blown among the hills caused great drifts in the ravines, by which this part of the island is intersected. I must now mention an occurrence which had caused considerable apprehension in our minds for the two last days, and the result of which had nearly proved of very l8o STORIES OF DISCOVERY, serious importance to the future welfare of the expedi- tion. Early on the morning of the nth I received a note from Lieutenant Liddon, acquainting me that, at daylight the preceding day, Mr. Fife, with a party of six men, had been despatched from the " Griper," with the hope of sur- prising some reindeer and musk-oxen, whose tracks had been seen in a ravine to the westward of the ships. . . . As they had not yet returned, in compliance with the instructions given to Mr. Fife, and had only been sup- plied with a small quantity of provisions, it was natural to apprehend that they had lost their way in pursuit of game, more especially as the night had been too inclem- ent for them to have voluntarily exposed themselves to it. I therefore recommended to Lieutenant Liddon to send a party in search of his people, and Messrs. Reid, Beverly, and Wakeham, who immediately volunteered their services on the occasion, were accordingly de- spatched for this purpose. Soon after their departure, however, it began to snow, which rendered the atmos- phere so extremely thick, especially on the hills along which they had to travel, that this party also lost their way in spite of every precaution, but fortunately got sight of our rockets after dark, by which they were directed to the ships, and returned at ten o'clock, almost exhausted with cold and fatigue, without any intelligence of the absentees. At daylight on the following morning I sent Lieuten- ant Hoppner, with the '^Hecla's'^ fore-royal-mast rigged as a flag-staff, which he erected on a conspicuous hill four or five miles inland, hoisting upon it a large ensign, which might be seen at a considerable distance in every direction. This expedient occurred to us as a more certain mode of directing our absentees towards the SEARCH FOR A LOST PARTY, l8l ships than that of sending out a number of parties, which I could not, in common prudence as well as humanity, permit to go to any great distance from the ships j but the snow fell so thick, and the drift was so great, during the whole of the 12th, that no advantage could at that time be expected from it, and another night came without the absent party appearing. Our apprehensions on their account had by this time increased to a most painful degree, and I therefore ordered four parties, under the command of careful officers, to be prepared to set out in search of them the following morning. These parties carried with them a number of pikes having small flags attached to them, which they were directed to plant at regular intervals, and which were intended to answer the double purpose of guiding them- selves on their return, and of directing the absent party, should they meet with them, to the ships. For the latter purpose a bottle was fixed to each pike, contain- ing the necessary directions for their guidance, and acquainting them that provisions would be found at the large flag-staff on the hill. Our searching parties left the ships soon after daylight, the wind still blowing hard from the westward, with increased snow, and the thermometer at 28°. This weather continued without intermission during the day, and our apprehensions for the safety of our people were excited to a most alarm- ing degree, when the sun began to descend behind the western hills for the third time since they had left the ship ; I will not, therefore, attempt to describe the joy- ful feelings we suddenly experienced, on the "Griper's '^ hoisting the signal appointed to inform us that her men, or a part of them, were seen on their return. 1 82 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. Soon after, we observed seven persons coming along the beach from the eastward, who proved to be Mr. Nias and his party, with four out of the seven men belonging to the "Griper." From the latter, consisting of the corporal of marines and three seamen, we learned that they had lost their way within a few hours after leaving the ship, and had wandered about without any- thing to guide them till about ten o'clock on the follow- ing day, when they descried the large flag-staff at a great distance. At this time the whole party were together ; but now, unfortunately separated in conse- quence of a difference of opinion respecting the flag- staff, which Mr. Fife mistook for a smaller one that had been erected some days before at a considerable dis- tance to the eastward of our present situation, and, with that impression, walked away in a contrary direc- tion, accompanied by two of his men. The other four who had now returned (of whom two w^ere already much debilitated) determined to make for the flag-staff. When they had walked some distance, and were enabled to ascertain what it was, one of them endeavored to overtake Mr. Fife, but was too much fatigued, and returned to his comrades. They halted during a part of the night, made a sort of hut of stones and turf to shelter them from the weather, and kindled a little fire with gunpowder and moss to warm their feet ; they had never been in actual want of food, having lived upon raw grouse, of which they were enabled to obtain a quantity sufficient for their subsistence. In the morn- ing they once more set forward towards the flag-staff, which they reached within three or four hours after Lieutenant Beechey had left some provisions on the spot ; having eaten some bread, and drank a little rum RETURN OF THE LOST PARTY. 1 83 and water, a mixture which they described as appearing to them perfectly tasteless and clammy, they renewed their journey towards the ships, and had not proceeded far when, notwithstanding the snow which was con- stantly falling, they met with footsteps which directed them to Mr. Nias and his party, by whom they were conducted to the ships. The account they gave us of Mr. Fife and his two companions led us to believe that we should find them, if still living, at a considerable distance to the west- ward, and some parties were just about to set out in that direction, when the trouble and anxiety which this mistake would have occasioned us were prevented by the arrival of another of the searching parties, with the information that Mr. Fife and the two men were on their way to the ships, being about five miles to the eastward. Some fresh hands were immediately sent to bring them in, and they arrived on board at ten p. m., after an absence of ninety-one hours, and having been exposed, during three nights, to the inclemency of the first wintry weather we had experienced. Almost the whole of this party were much exhausted by cold and fatigue, and several of them were severely frost-bitten in their toes and fingers ; but, by the skill and unre- mitted attention of our medical gentlemen, they were in a few days enabled to return to their duty. Before midnight we had still greater reason than ever to be thankful for the opportune recovery of our people; for the wind increased to a hard gale about half past eleven, at which time the thermometer had fallen to 15°; making altogether so inclement a night as it would have been impossible for them, in their already debilitated state, to have survived. In humble 1 84 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, gratitude to God for this signal act of mercy, we dis- tinguished the headland to the westward of the ships by the name of Cape Providence. WINTER HARBOR. The ships weighed at six a. m., on the 24th [of Sep- tember], the wind being still at north, and the weather moderate and fine. As soon as the " Hecla " was under sail, I went ahead in a boat to sound, and to select an anchorage for the ships. In running to the westward towards the point of the reef, we had no less than three fathoms and three quarters; and, by keeping farther off shore, we might have had much deeper water, but the wind being scant, it was necessary to keep w^ell to the northward. Near the southwestern point of this harbor there is a remarkable block of sandstone, some- what resembling the roof of a house, on which the ships' names were subsequently engraved by Mr. Fisher, This stone is very conspicuous in coming from the east- ward, and when kept open to the southward of the grounded ice at the end of the reef, forms a good lead- ing mark for the channel into the harbor. Off the end of the reef the water deepened to six fathoms, and the " Hecla's '^ anchor was dropped in eight fath- oms, half a mile within the reef, and close to the edge of the ice through which the canal was to be cut. The " Griper " arrived soon after, and by half past eight A. M. both ships were secured in the proper position for commencing the intended operations. As soon as our people had breakfasted I proceeded, with a small party of men, to sound, and to mark with boarding-pikes upon the ice the most direct channel we WINTER HARBOR. 1 85 could find to the anchorage, having left directions for every other officer and man in both ships to be em- ployed in cutting the canal. This operation was per- formed by first marking out two parallel lines, distant from each other a little more than the breadth of the larger ship. Along each of these lines a cut was then made with an ice-saw, and others again at right angles to them, at intervals of from ten to twenty feet ; thus dividing the ice into a number of rectangular pieces, which it was again necessary to subdivide diagonally in order to give room for their being floated out of the canal. On returning from the upper part of the har- bor, where I had marked out what appeared to be the best situation for our winter-quarters, I found that con- siderable progress had been made in cutting the canal and in floating the pieces out of it. To facilitate the latter part of the process, the seamen, who are always fond of doing things in their own way, took advantage of a fresh northerly breeze, by setting some boats* sails upon the pieces of ice, a contrivance which saved both time and labor. This part of the operation, however, was by far the most troublesome, principally on account of the quantity of young ice which formed in the canal, and especially about the entrance, where, before sun- set, it had become so thick that a passage could no longer be found for the detached pieces without con- siderable trouble in breaking it. At half past seven p. M. we weighed our anchors, and began to warp up the canal ; but the northerly wind blew so fresh, and the people were so much fatigued, having been almost constantly at work for nineteen hours, that it was mid- night before we reached the termination of our first day's labor. While we were thus employed, about nine 1 86 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. o'clock a vivid flash of light was observed, exactly like lightning. There was at the same time, and during the greater part of the night, a permanent brightness in the northern quarter of the heavens, which was prob- ably occasioned by the Aurora Borealis. I directed half a pound of fresh meat per man to be issued, as an extra allowance; and this was continued daily till the completion of our present undertaking, September 26. At half past one p. m. we began to track the ships along in the same manner as before, and at a quarter past three we reached our winter-quarters and hailed the event with three loud and hearty cheers from both ships' companies. The ships were in five fathoms' water, a cable's length from the beach on the northwestern side of the harbor, to which I gave the name of Winter Harbor ; and I called the group of islands which we had discovered in the Polar Sea, New Georgia; but having afterwards recollected that this name is already occupied in another part of the world, I deemed it expedient to change it to that of the North Georgian Islands, in honor of our gracious sovereign George III., whose whole reign had been so eminently distinguished by the extension and improve- ment of geographical and nautical knowledge, and for the prosecution of new and important discoveries in both. It was in the harbor called Winter Harbor, in these islands, that Parry and his men spent the winter of 1819-20. It was here that they published, for their amusement, the " North Georgian Gazette," which was printed afterwards. Uncle Fritz showed the young people a copy of it. This winter was the first in a o M P5 w M o w HOW TO REACH THE NORTH POLE. 187 series of such experiences, which have been described by different northern explorers, in the course of this century. They had not time then, but to tempt the children to go further Uncle Fritz showed them the volumes which con- tain Nansen's Reports and Peary's and Sverdrup's of later times. The famous effort by Nansen was made in a ship built for the purpose, which entered the Arctic Ocean by Bering Strait. They permitted themselves to be frozen up, and some of them remained in the vessel till the ice-floe in which the ship was embedded melted at the east of Greenland and Iceland. Meanwhile, in the spring of that same year, Nansen with one companion worked nearer to the Pole than any one had gone before. On the Greenland side Peary has completed the northern outline of Greenland. He is proposing in this summer to make another attempt to cross the distance, which is not very great, to the Pole itself. Uncle Fritz himself wrote an imaginary discovery of the Pole, which was printed in Harper's Magazine in the year 1883 under the title of " Colonel Ingham's Journey." ^ 1 "Susan's Escort and Other Stories.*' — Harper Brothers. VIIL THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. THE young people knew that Uncle Fritz would lay out some books of African discovery for them, and those of them who came out by the Providence Railroad were talking about it. "What I do not understand," said Bedford Long, "is this constant allusion to the sources of the Nile. They all went to find the head-waters of the Nile. Why did they want to find the head-waters of the Nile more than those of any other river ? " "It was one of the geographical puzzles," said Fergus. " I know it was. In the Greek Reader, — in the geo- graphical selections, which were easy, — it said that the head-waters of the Nile were not known. But what troubles me is that they did not know any more about the head-waters of the Danube or of the Don; Ister and Tanais, were they not ? Why did they not make a mystery of them ? " The children discussed this question as they walked across to Lady Oliver's house, and there referred it to Colonel Ingham. " I wish I knew," said he, very frankly. " But I had better * confess ignorance.' I have thought a good deal about it. THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 1 89 "I think, but am not sure, that the quest for the fountains of the Nile grew out of the mystery which attached to the annual inundation. The regularity of this inundation, which comes every year at almost the same date as the year before, astonished everybody. They thought it must come from some very marvellous phenomenon at the head of the Nile. *'Then for a long distance, much farther than any travellers known to them had gone, the Nile receives no considerable branches. It flows majestically north- ward, — with this immense volume of water, — not fed by any large streams. This gave a certain mystery to the river, and you find that mystery alluded to as early as in Homer's poems. ^^By the time of the Latin classics this mystery of the fountains of the Nile was recognized as one of the unanswered riddles of the world. " Now, with regard to your northern rivers j while the Greeks were as ignorant, they had no such occasion to know, or to inquire. These were just like the little rivers which the Greeks knew ; they had branches and inundations like theirs. The Nile was, and is, different from any other known river in the world. "Since Mr. Rhodes took hold of South Africa and since the Germans and British have tried to colonize different parts of the Continent, the map has become quite intelligible." '^What is queer, and a little mortifying, now that we have discovered, in our own times, the two great lakes — the Albert Nyanza and the Victoria Nyanza — which feed its chief head-waters, it proves that they were laid down quite correctly on old maps of the sixteenth century." 190 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. And Uncle Fritz showed them an old map, probably from Portuguese sources, which represented two large lakes nearly under the equator. " Probably the Portuguese map-makers had the ac- count of these from Mussulman traders. They had confidence in their authority, and put them down. But there was so much guess-work in the maps of Central Africa, that the more modern map-makers, in their pride, swept all of this work out." Mabel quoted — " So geographers, in Afric's maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er unhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns." The quotation pleased Uncle Fritz. " Yes," he said, pointing to the old map, " here are elephants, and here are palm-trees ; here is a lion and here a giraffe." Then he took a modern map, forty years old. " And here, you see, they are all swept away. But the lakes went with the elephants. "It is not the only piece of truth which the critical habit of the last century, and of our century, has swept away, from pure crass ignorance. " Now, of the solid work in Africa which has gone on steadily through this century, and is going on now, the foundation was laid by Bruce, whose rather stately book of travels I have here. " It used to be said that he had found the head-waters of the Nile. You will see he did find the head of one of its most important branches. " The impulse given by his enterprise has never died out in England, where they formed a Society of African Exploration. Considerations of trade and the interest THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, IQI in suppressing slavery have quickened this enterprise, and the nations of Continental Europe have all contrib- uted explorers. Sir Henry Stanley, who crossed the Continent in search of Dr. Livingston in the year 1869, has lately died. His death has awakened interest in the discoveries made in Africa. Some of his own reports and letters have been lately reprinted. The great interest in Africa which the last half cen- tury has shown resulted from the aboHtion of the slave trade with distant countries. The last slave-trader from the west coast went to sea and was never heard of again. This was some fifty years ago. With the abolition of that trade, the domestic slave trade of Africa, in which the strong man of one tribe seizes the weak man of another, came nearly to an end, and there is some chance now for the civihzation of all Africa. But before we come to later times see what hard lines poor Bruce had at the outset. BRUCE^S DIFFICULTY AT THE START. I found at Bengazi a small French sloop, which had come there laden with corn, and was going up the Archi- pelago, or towards the Morea, for more. We sailed with a fair wind, and in four or five days landed at Canea, at the west end of the Island of Crete. Here I was taken dan- gerously ill, occasioned by my hardships at Ptolemeta. From Canea I sailed for Rhodes, and there found my books ; I then proceeded to Castelrosso, on the coast of Caramania, which is a part of Asia Minor yet unex- plored, and my illness increasing, it was impossible for me to execute. 192 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. Mr. Peyssonel, French Consul at Smyrna, furnished me with letters for that part of Asia Minor, and there is no doubt but they would have been very efficacious. From Castelrosso I continued till I came to Cyprus ; I stayed there but half a day, and arrived at Sidon, where I was most kindly received by Mr. Clerambant, brother-in-law to Mr. Peyssonel, and French Consul at this place. While at Canea I wrote by way of France, and again while at Rhodes by way of Smyrna, to particular friends both in London and France, informing them of my dis- astrous situation, and desiring them to furnish me with another set of instruments similar to those which I had lost. The answer received from Paris and London much about the same time was, that everybody was employed in making instruments for Danish, Swedish, and other foreign astronomers; that all those which were com- pleted had been bought up. And without waiting a considerable indefinite time, nothing could be had that could be depended upon. At the same time I was told that report said that I was gone with a Russian caravan through the Curdistan, where I was to observe the tran- sit of Venus in a place where it was not visible, and that I was to proceed to China, and return by the way of the East Indies, — a story which was industriously cir- culated at the time, and which some have affected to believe to this day. Finding myself so treated, I had almost returned home, had it not been for my desire of fulfilling my promise to my sovereign, and of adding the ruins of Palmyra to those of Africa, already secured and out of danger. In my anger I renounced all thoughts of the attempt to discover the source of the Nile, and I repeated my JAMES BRUCE THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, 193 orders no more for either quadrant, telescope, or time- keeper. I had pencils and paper; and luckily my large camera obscura, which had escaped the catastrophe of Ptolemeta, was arrived from Smyrna, and then standing before me. I therefore began to cast about me for the means of obtaining feasible and safe methods of re- peating the famous journey to Palmyra. I found it was necessary to advance nearer the scene of action. Ac- cordingly I accepted an invitation from the British Con- sul for Tripoli in Syria to take up my residence there. " You see," said Uncle Fritz, " that there was a good chance that Bruce would settle down in the vocation of a Frank doctor in Tripoli. In that case you and I would probably never have heard of him. But his chances improved, and this book is a book which became very famous. It was not published until 1790, but it re- counts, as you see, the story of his * Travels to discover the Sources of the Nile in the Years 1768-1773.' You see it has these curious plates, and maps of the coun- tries he visited. There were a good many people who thought Bruce's stories were horrible lies. But his truthfulness is now established by people who have followed him. " From the interest which Bruce excited, the African Exploration Society grew. Eventually the Geographical Society of England was established, in whose yearly reports you young folks will find a good deal that you will like, because they seem to bring you quite up to our time. The Geographical Society in 1857 sent Lieu- tenant Burton and Lieutenant Speke, both of whom had been in Africa before, in quest of the two great lakes, of which the existence was now certain. This he achieved 13 194 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. in two expeditions. In the second, with another com- panion, Captain Grant, he passed through the very heart of the unknown region of Eastern Africa. *' Lieutenant Burton, you will see, is mentioned in this passage. He is the same man who made the wonderful travels in Arabia." ^ THE VICTORIA NYANZA. After spending nearly three months in laborious re- searches, the travellers returned to Kaze, where it was determined that Burton, who was ill, should remain in town, and Speke should go to verify certain reports as to the existence of a great lake farther to the north. Speke, with a part of his escort, accordingly set out ; and after a march of twenty-five days, over a country presenting no serious obstacles, he came to the shores of a great lake, called by the natives simply Nyanza, or the Water, to which he prefixed the name Victoria, in honor of the queen, a useful addition as distinguishing this lake from that of Nyassa to the south, a name which also means the Water. He did not go farther than the southern point, which he found to be in lati- tude 2^ 44' south; longitude, 33° east, and 3,552 feet above the sea-level, being thus about four hundred and fifty miles south of the highest point of the Nile that had been reached by Miani. Nothing as to its extent northward could be told by the natives, excepting the statement that it reached to the end of the world. Arab merchants, however, asserted that it was the source of some great river; but Speke made up his mind to the conclusion that that river was the White Nile. In all these countries through which he had 1 Personal Narration of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, 1855. THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 195 gone, cultivation appeared more general than in others he had traversed ; the climate was healthy and generally mild, with a heat never exceeding 85° Fahrenheit. Thus a great progress had been made in solving the problems of the lakes ; but the Snowy Mountains were so far still an enigma, till Baron C. von Decken, ac- companied by Mr. Thornton, ascended, in 186 1, Kilimi Njaro to the height of 13,000 feet, where they were met by avalanches. They calculated its elevation to be 20,000 feet, the upper portions being covered with per- petual snow. This mountain is described as being of volcanic origin. South of it is a lake called Yib^, thirty miles long, two or three broad, and nineteen hundred feet above the sea-level. An Alpine region, diversified with rising peaks, extends to the north. The great object, in so far as concerned the source of the Nile, was still unattained, and Speke, having found friends in England, set out again from Zanzibar, this time accompanied by Captain Grant, a former com- panion in arms, by the same route he had travelled in 1857. A caravan of natives were sent to form a depot at Kaze, and the travellers were escorted by sixty armed men from Zanzibar, engaged to carry their baggage, with a host of porters, bearing beads, calico, and other articles for exchange. The journey began under great discour- agements ; they were obliged to march on foot, in con- sequence of mules and donkeys having been found unsuitable ; the country was parched, the tribes were at war, there was a threatening of famine, guides and bear- ers went off, and when they reached Kaze their progress was arrested for want of interpreters and carriers. Hav- ing overcome some of these difficulties, the expedition was again on its march in October, the new route being 196 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. at northwest, leading through the kingdom of Ukinza, a cultivated country. We next trace them to the kingdom of Karagwe, a territory on the western shore of the Ny- anza, and occupying the eastern slopes of a mountainous region, stretching two hundred miles to the west, and five thousand feet above the sea-level. These are again said to be part of the Mountains of the Moon. There are two rivers in this territory, — one flowing from the west into the lake, and the other going to join Lake Liita N'Zige to the northwest. Here is a fine climate, said to equal that of England, and the whole country is refreshed by streams; tall grass grows upon the slopes, pease, beans, the sugar-cane, bananas, and to- bacco are abundant, and fat cattle pasture in the val- leys, — all signs that the negroes here are of a superior order, which they were found to be. Having made fa- vor with the king, Speke got recommendations to the ruler of the neighboring country. They next reached Uganda, called the paradise of equatorial Africa, where everything grows in luxuriance. The king, who had heard of the navigation of the Nile by white men, and was anxious for commerce in that direction, received the travellers with great kindness, and detained them five months almost as prisoners, yet with every attention he could bestow. The natives of Uganda are called the French of Africa, in consequence of their vivacity, and good taste in dress and dwellings. The country exhibits the greatest luxuriance, abounding in coffee, the banana, and date-palm, and the climate is mild and genial. Proceeding to the northwest, the travellers reached Unyoro, which stretches to the little Siita N'Zige Lake. This, which is the ancient kingdom of Kittara, harbors the elephant and rhinoceros amongst its dark forests THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, 1 97 and rank grass. The people differ considerably from those of Uganda, being composed of inferior tribes of negroes belonging to a peculiar race called the Wahuma, and who do not eat flesh meats, but live on the sweet potato and grain. Kamrasi, the king, is morose and cruel, occupied chiefly in fattening .his wives and chil- dren till they can scarcely stand upright, and in acts of despotism. For the first time Speke found savages en- tirely naked. Beyond Unyoro the dialects of the north come in use, — those of the south ceasing, as it were, at once. An entire year was expended in passing through these kingdoms, where white men were now for the first time seen. In all of them there was a strong desire to de- tain the strangers; nor would they have effected their escape perhaps for years, had they not been able to deal largely in presents, and still more in promises to introduce commerce between the kings and the Queen of England. Turning to the north side of the lake, where the great secret was concealed, we find that some rivers flow into the lake and some out of it. Of the former, there are the Mworango and the Luyere. East of these, at about the middle of the north line of the lake, flows the main branch of the White Nile, leaving Na- poleon Channel, with a breadth of one hundred and fifty yards, by certain runs called the Ripon Falls, over rocks supposed to be of igneous origin, twelve feet in height. This northern shore runs east and west, and is about twenty miles to the north of the equator. The extent of the lake is supposed to be about one hundred and fifty miles either way ; the water is sweet, and of no great depth. The surface is 3,553 feet above the sea-level. It is covered with whole fleets of canoes, 198 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. belonging to the different nations on its shores ; and yet, with this simple mode of communication with each other, the peoples have no other intercourse, if they are not almost entirely unknown to each other. Lake Baringa, which we have already noticed as being known to the missionaries, lies at the northeast verge of Nyanza, de- scribed by the natives as a long, narrow basin, and sup- posed to be connected in some way with the greater lake. There is less doubt that the Baringa gives issue to the Asna, a river which falls into the White Nile on the east, about eighty miles from Gondokoro on the north. Little is yet known of the inhabitants of the region between the Asna and the Nile except their names, — the Usoga, Uvuma, Ukori, and Avama. It is interesting to note the manner in which Speke made his discovery. Arriving at the Murchison Firth, he went northward some fifty miles to a town called Kari ; there he crossed the Luyere River already men- tioned, and finding his way to the White Nile, he fol- lowed it till he came to the point of debouchure at the Ripon Falls. Returning to Kari, he rejoined the expe- dition and followed the downward course of the main stream to the Karuma Falls, where the river makes a bend to join the little Liita N'Zige Lake on the west. This junction is made at the north end of the lake. With its southern end resting on the equator, it extends, like a narrow reservoir, one hundred and fifty miles in a northern direction, having within it, towards the northern end, an island containing deposits of salt. It is about 2,200 feet above the sea, with a fall of surface- level to the extent of 1,353 feet in the space of one hundred and twenty miles which intervene between it and the Nyanza. The supposition is (for it is not yet THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 1 99 properly ascertained) that the Nile, after passing through the northwestern extremity of the lake, returns again to the east, where it is met by the Asna. From the Karuma Falls it rushes towards the west, — all at this point that the travellers could ascertain, in consequence of being prohibited by the wars then raging about the lake from going in that direction. Passing from these falls into the Ukidi country, the travellers again met the river, in the Madi kingdom, near the junction of the Asna, in latitude 5° 35' north. They had no doubt of its being the same Nile which they parted with at the Karuma Falls, though the rea- son assigned for this certainty — the occurrence of **the long flats and long rapids," for which the river is dis- tinguished — does not of itself seem very convincing. Continuing their journey, they came to De Bono's Sta- tion, in latitude 3° north, where they met a great many Turks, traders in ivory, the only occupants of the place. Some days afterwards they set out, accompanied by the traders, for Gondokoro, where they arrived on the 15th of February. The latitude was ascertained to be 4° 54' 5'' north; longitude 31° 46' 9'' east, a determination which will regulate the itineraries of travellers from a point so central. Here they met, to their great joy, their friend Mr. S. W. Baker, well known for his bold adventures in those parts of Africa, and who had come up the Nile to meet them. This gentleman, on learning that a part of the White River had been left unexplored, determined with prompt decision to set out for the Lake Liita N'Zige ; but it has since been learned that after organizing a party of Khartum men, and paying them in advance, they mutinied and deserted him, leaving him to prosecute an adventure to the upper streams 200 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, of the Sobat. Another peculiar incident connected with this part of the main expedition was the appearance of the ladies Tinne and Madame van Capellan, sisters, with the daughter of the former, who, having a swift steamer on the Nile, came up to succor the travellers, and afterwards, accompanied by M. de Heuglin and Dr. Steudner, intended to steer westward, by Lake No and the Bahr-el-Gazal, the first and only great affluent of the Nile which joins it on the west bank. This river meets the main stream in the parallel of 9° north, having at first the appearance of a small marshy lake, round the entrance of which the Nile winds with considerable velocity. The second tributary is the Giraffe, which joins the Nile on the right, or east, falling with a swirl into the main stream, with a volume of water equal to a third of that of the Nile. The source of the Giraffe is quite unknown. The third on the same side is the South Sobat, a full stream, but not so rapid as the Gi- raffe. The North Sobat was passed unobserved. The fourth is the Blue River, which joins the Nile at Khar- tum, in latitude 15° 30' north. As to this last river, Speke describes it as the Blue Nile, a mountain stream rising in the country beyond the rainy zone, and sub- ject to the influence of tropical rains and droughts. The suspicion so long entertained that it was the true Nile was, in his opinion, absurd ; for all the waters it is able to send would be absorbed long before it reached the sea. The fifth and last tributary of the Nile is the Atbara, a river very like the Blue River, only smaller. Beyond this the Nile flows on through Nubia and Egypt wdthout a single tributary, a distance of one thousand miles, to the Mediterranean, which it enters by the Damietta and Rosetta mouths, the only two remaining THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 20I of the seven terminal outlets by which it escaped from the delta. Among the most useful results of these journeys are the facts recorded in the tables of temperature. We have hitherto been led to suppose that equatorial Africa was subjected to great heat, suited to the nature of its inhabitants, and so unfavorable to the health of the European as to forbid the hope of successful coloniza- tion. Yet in Karagw^, only i° south of the equator, the temperature during five months was on one occa- sion only so high as 85° of Fahrenheit. At nine in the morning it ranged from 60° to 71°; and the nights were invariably cool. At Uganda, 1,700 feet lower, the tem- perature is only a little higher. At Unyoro it is hotter, the maximum being 86° and the minimum 61° to 72°. The mean temperature for the whole year is 68° ; maxi- mum, 82°; minimum, 51°; the extreme range, 49°. Compare these with the mean of Funchal, in Madeira, Bermuda, Gibraltar, and Cape Town, showing 67° and 68°, while the maximum above given corresponds with the summer temperature of New Orleans and Canton, and the minimum, 51°, is nearly the same as that of London and Vienna. These equatorial figures are doubtless due to the elevation of the table-land. There is nothing remarkable in the rainfall, or the direction or intensity of the winds. But notwithstanding all these facts, it is too clear that equatorial Africa, however it may be benefited by Christianity, must still be held as set apart for itself, — the people peculiar to it, its wild animals, and plagues. IX. THE MOUTH OF THE NIGER. THE young people were still studying African travels, looking out Mr. Pinto's route, and this set them to looking at Uncle Fritz's map of Africa, which is pinned for convenience on the closet-door. They found a good deal there which was not in their school-maps. They found that a very spirited set of Frenchmen were trying different plans about the Desert of Sahara. One set of people, theorists perhaps, make a great lake of it, a sort of younger sister of the Mediterranean Sea. It is thought that by doing this the hot Sahara winds may be cooled down and the climate of southern Europe im- proved. A very spirited French officer did his best to make an order, half military and half ecclesiastical, which should go into the oases of the Desert of Sahara and into the large towns to the south of it for the civilization of those people. Mr. Cecil Rhodes, a successful and energetic man of affairs who had made a fortune in South Africa, deter- mined on a railway from Cairo to the Cape, as he and his friends called it. This railway is now nearly finished. It waits only the union by a great bridge or "viaduct" between the northern line and the southern. There is already trans-African communication direct from Cape Town to Europe. The unfortunate and unnecessary war between England and the brave Dutch people who had till our time South Africa in their power, has set back such enterprises, but they are beginning with new courage now. On the west coast of Africa the so-called State of UNEXPLORED REGIONS, 203 Congo has been created. The different European powers and the United States hold a sort of Protectorate under which the King of Belgium takes the oversight of the colonists there. Mr. Shepherd, a young black man who was trained at the Hampton Institute, has estabhshed himself quite in the heart of '^ unexplored regions " and sometimes we get a report of the first interest from him. The little American colony of Monrovia has acquired a wide influence among the tribes of blacks northward and eastward. They speak English there, they educate their children well there, and now and then our young people have a chance to hear of those countries from persons who are not ashamed that they are black themselves and see the great possibilities before the native tribes of Africa. Mrs. Jane Sharp, who for many years had the oversight of the education of girls in Africa, has lately made a visit in America. Uncle Fritz said that in his day there used to be a bright novel in which the scene was laid in the " Unex- plored Regions." He said he had a very sensible friend, who always read her novels even, with a map, and she insisted on reading " Kaloolah " with the Useful Knowl- edge Maps of Africa. " Is it true," asked Will, " that the Portuguese traders knew more of Central Africa three hundred years ago than we know now?" It is quite true that the old maps, in the splendid old atlases of the sixteenth century, fill in many parts of Africa which our critical and sceptical geographers leave bare. Aaid it has proved, as the young people saw in read- ing Speke's and Grant's discoveries, that the great lakes near the equator in Eastern Africa were both really 204 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. intelligently laid down on the old maps. This has cer- tainly given more credit to them. But they do not agree very well with each other, and it is quite sure that the traders, from whose reports they were made, had no accurate instruments for observation of latitude and longitude. "When I studied geography," said Uncle Fritz, "the two great mysteries acknowledged in the book were the ' head- waters of the Nile ' and the ' mouth of the Niger.' The scholars were given to understand that the man who made the book knew everything else, in heaven above and in the earth beneath. " The source of the Nile had been an old marvel, as you all know. Then diiferent traders and travellers had found this great river Niger or Joliba in the heart of Africa, and they did not know where it went to. " As one river had not a source and the other had not a mouth, I favored, for convenience, a theory which some people had, — that the Niger became the Nile." "Just as I look in the Transcript, among ^Lost and Found,* and try to match the advertisements," said Sybil. "Yes," said Clem. Waters, "she wanted to make me believe that a man who had lost a trained pointer would be satisfied with a Skye terrier which had been found at South Boston with a blue ribbon round his neck." "I suppose she was disappointed," said Uncle Fritz. " Well, that was just what happened to me. The Niger chose to run west and south. Here it is on Col. Adan^s map. It flows into what the sailors call ^the Bight of Benin.' HUGH CLAPPER TON. 205 "What with the eagerness to know, which men and women will always have, because, when they choose, they are partakers of the divine nature, and what with the desire to find new regions for trade, there have been, for a hundred years and more, constant explorations in Africa to work out the answers to these questions.'* " I had a good deal rather work them out than work out an answer in the Binomial Theorem," said Bob Ed- meston bravely. Uncle Fritz laughed. " I remember another boy who thought so. He was in a store in Charleston. When he went home to his dinner he used to walk up on the sunny side of the street at noon in summer, so as to accustom himself to the heat of an African sun when he should be commissioned to explore the interior of Africa.'* Bob looked his admiration. "That was brave," said he. " What became of him ? " "When I last heard of him," said Uncle Fritz, "he was a clerk in the Mint in San Francisco. Whether he walks up the sunny side of the street, I do not know." " Well, who finally found the course of the Niger, and why was it so hard to find? " " An English officer named Hugh Clapperton virtually found it. But it was Lander, who had gone out with him as his personal servant, who made it sure. I looked through Clapperton's last book the other day, — it is his journal as Lander published it for him, — and I have marked it for you just as I did Humboldt and Hearne." So the children settled down, with the thermometer out- doors at five degrees, and the wind stiff from the north- west, to read of tropical Africa. 206 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, THE KING OF YOURIBA.i yanuary 24, 1825. Early this morning the king paid us a visit, accompanied by his favorite officer and Abaco, the messenger. We had received previous information that he wished to have the presents intended for him this night ; and such is the crooked policy of these petty sover- eigns of Africa that no present can be given, no business or transaction of importance can be done openly: all must be conducted under the cover of night, and with the greatest secrecy, from the highest to the lowest. We first began inquiring after his health. I then told him that I was the King of England's servant, sent by His Majesty to beg his acceptance of a present, which there lay before me ; that we had heard his (the King of Youriba's) name mentioned in England as a great king ; that we now ex- perienced the truth of the report ; that three white men, two of them my companions and one a servant, had died on the road ; that another of my companions was at Dahomey, to ask the king of that country to allow him a passage through his dominions. I told him that all the Youriba people had behaved well to us ; that the caboceers of the different towns through which we had passed supplied us with everything we wanted, especially the chief of Jannah, his friend, who had shown the greatest attention to us, and had given us a good man for a messenger, who had conducted us with safety and attention to His Majesty's capital. Upon this the messenger was ordered to make his prostrations, and His Majesty rubbed his shoulders with his hand. I then told him that the King of England would be glad to make 1 Youriba is the Jarriba of some maps. THE MEETING OF CAPTAIN CLAPPERTON WITH THE KING OF YOURIBA KING OF YOURIBA, 20/ him his friend, and that whatever he, the King of Youriba, might have occasion for, would be sent from England by one of the king's ships to Badagry. The king then repUed in assuring us that we were truly welcome to his country ; that he had frequently heard of white men, but that neither himself nor his father nor any of his ancestors had ever seen one. He was glad that white men had come at this time ; and now he trusted his country would be put right, his enemies brought to submission, and he would be enabled to build up his father's house, which war had destroyed. This he spoke in such a feeling and energetic manner, and repeated it so many times, that I could not help sympa- thizing with him. He then said we were welcome to his country, and he was glad to see us, and would have been so even if we had not a cowrie, instead of coming with our hands full, as we had done ; that he wanted nothing from white men but something to assist him against his enemies and those of his people who had rebelled against him, so as to en- able him to reduce them to obedience; that his slaves from Houssa had joined the Fellatahs, put to death the old, sold the young ; that he was glad to hear that all his people had behaved well to us ; that had any of them re- fused us assistance, he should have sent an order to cut off their heads ; that the caboceer of Jannah was his slave, whom he put there to look after that part of his domin- ions ; that Badagry, Alladah, and Dahomey all belonged to him, and paid custom for every ship that anchored there ; and he concluded by assuring us that he wanted nothing but assistance against his enemies, feelingly de- ploring the civil war occasioned by his father's death, the state of his country, and of his capital, Katunga. He then asked us if we did not see the ruined towns as we 208 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. came along the road. "All these," said he, "were de- stroyed and burned by my rebellious Houssa slaves and their friends the Fellatahs.'* . . . We now began to unfold and to deliver the presents. With the umbrellas and gold-mounted cane he was much pleased ; but for the red and blue cloth, which, by some mistake, was common cloth for soldiers' coats, we had to make an apology. With all the others he was highly pleased. Indeed, during our stay at Katunga, he was never seen without the cane. After the delivery of the presents, I told him that the king, my master, had sent me before on a mission to Bornou, in which country and Houssa I had passed two years ; that the sultans and people of these countries had behaved to me with the greatest kindness ; and that, hav- ing then understood that the path we were now going was the nearest way to Bornou, the King of England had ordered me, as I proceeded, to visit the King of Youriba, and to assure him of his friendship, and to request him to give me a safe conduct to Nyffee, from whence I might proceed to Bornou. He seemed to hesitate much at this request, and consulted with his minister what answer to give. After which he said that Nyffee, or Toppa, was involved in civil war, caused by the death of the king, who had left two sons, both of whom claimed the king- dom ; that one son had more of his countrymen on his side, but the other had called in the assistance of the Fel- latahs, or Fellens, which made him doubt as to my safety in the event of my putting myself into their hands. I told him I was a servant of the King of England, and must go where he chose to order me, and that, live or die, I must proceed ; that I had nothing to do with either party or with their wars ; that all I wanted was a passage over YOURIBAN CUSTOMS. 209 the Quorra into Nyffee, and hoped he would not refuse me. After some further consultation with his counsellors, he said he would despatch a messenger to open the road for me, and that he would send me safely over the river. Wednesday, 2^tk. Early this morning the king sent me a present of a large fat cow, a sheep, yams, etc. He had before sent us a goat, yams, honey, and milk night and morning. The atmosphere here is so dry that most of the instruments are breaking and splitting. My only hygrom- eter was broken at Badagry. The late Dr. Morrison's barometers were fitted with ivory screws at the bottom of the tube ; they are all split and rendered useless by the heat. The microscope is all in pieces, as also several other instruments. In the evening we had a visit from the king to thank me for the presents I had given him, and again to assure me of being welcome ; said that he wanted nothing, unless it was something that would speedily cause the submission of the rebels. He said that he had sent to his friend, the King of Benin, for troops to assist him in the war. He added that the customary fetes or amusements would begin in about two months, and he would be very glad if I would stay to see them ; that he dressed now as a common man, but after that I should see him robed as a king. I told him I must go on early to get to Bornou before the rains. Mr. Houston took this opportunity of observing to him that he had been at the customs in Da- homey, and inquired if the King of Youriba put to death such a number of people at his customs as those of Dahomey. He shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and exclaimed, " No, no ! No King of Youriba could sacrifice human beings," and that if he so commanded, 14 2IO STORIES OF DISCOVERY. the King of Dahomey must also desist from that practice ; that he must obey him. Thursday y 26th. ... In the evening I set off five rockets, which astonished all and frightened away many. The king was sitting under his verandah, and we waited on him to inquire how he Uked the rockets ; he was quite delighted, and said they should be kept for war. 27///. Employed in reducing the packages and writing. In the afternoon the king paid us a visit, when we showed him some presents intended for the three principal cabo- ceers of the city. He said he did not know what to do or say for our great kindness, as we had given him more things than he would have got for the sale of one hundred slaves, and now we were giving more to his caboceers ; that, however, what he could do he would. He said he had sent messengers in different directions to try to find a safe path to the place where I wished to go ; that while we were in his dominions we were perfectly safe, but on leaving them he was sorry to think we might be exposed to danger from the disturbed state of the countries through which I must travel. He then said that the Jappa, or Nyffee, messengers, who had been here three years, were in waiting to give us every information regarding the river that I might wish to ask them. They were accordingly called in, and were certainly the most savage-looking knaves I ever saw ; but they either could not or were afraid to give even the least account of the river Quorra, and I therefore sent them off after asking a few questions. Indeed, there seems a great unwillingness in both the king and the people of this place to say anything at all about the subject, for what reason I cannot yet con- jecture. 31^-/.... The king called to see me this evenmg, DEL A YS. 211 but I was asleep ; he insisted, however, that Mr. Houston should allow him to look at me with his own eyes, and, taking the candle, he did so, and observed that, having looked on me, I should be quite well in the morning. Mr. Houston asked him for the loan of a horse to take an airing in the morning. This His Majesty could not com- prehend : why could a man want to ride or walk for nothing? If he rode or walked, he ought to go and see one of the caboceers, and he would get a present of a sheep, or a pig, or some yams; that would be doing good. So he said he would send a horse in the morning, and he mtist go and see some of his caboceers, and he would send to let them know he was coming. The pain in my head has fallen into my left eye, with inflammation and acute pain, accompanied with a light delirium. Sunday^ ^th. , . . In the afternoon had a visit from His Majesty. I asked him if the Nyffee messenger had arrived. He said no ; that he must be dead, sick, or taken prisoner. He said we could not go by the road of Nyffee, which was impassable from the wars : what was my hurry to go ? He was not yet tired of me ; he had many caboceers coming from the country to see me ; he wished to put everything right on the roads for me before I set off; that the King of England did not send me to him to run away again directly ; that he wished me to wait and see the customs, for then I should see him truly a king. I said I would do so with pleasure, but that the rains would have set in by that time, and I should be unable to go to Bornou. He asked what I was going to Bornou for. " Did not the King of England send you to me alone? " " No," said I. " He sent to you to pro- cure a passage to that country, where an Englishman now resides who was left there when I returned from thence.*' 212 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. I then told him I would consent to remain twelve days longer, and if he did not by that time find me a passage I would return to England and say he would not allow me to proceed. He now informed me that the messenger who arrived yesterday was from one of his provinces called Zouri, five days' distance ; that it was divided from the Zouri by the Quorra; that he would send me by that route, which was quite safe. I asked if I could not go and see the Quorra before I departed from Katunga. He said, No : the Fellatahs had possession of the road. He gave me his gooro-nut box, carved in the shape of a tor- toise in ebony. I promised to let him have thirty mus- kets, with powder and ball; on which he went away dancing, tripped and fell, but was soon picked up by his ladies. He always brings us some little present when he comes, and to-day he brought us a bottle of honey and a fruit called agra, about the size of a pear, with a hard outer skin, four large black seeds, surrounded by a pleas- ant acid pulp, like tamarinds, of a cream color. My servant, Pascoe, met in the market to-day some Fellatahs, who told him there was no war in Nyffee ; that the king was only afraid of the Fellatahs ; that the Fella- tahs of Raka had taken nine Zourrebanis, who had been found in a suspicious place, but were going to return them here on the morrow. ^th. In the middle of the day the king visited me, and brought a bottle of honey and two cock fowls. He be- gan joking me as to what I was about to give him. I said I had nothing to give him. Says he : "I ask you to give me one of your servants.*' ''I can't do that," says I. "They are all free men as well as myself." "What!" says he. ** No slaves in England ? " " No," says I. '* As soon as a slave sets his feet in England he is free." ANOTHER AUDIENCE. 213 *^ Then," says he, " as you must go, either Mr. Houston or Richard must stop with me : I must have one." After a good deal of conversation of this kind, I asked him to fix a day for our departure. He artfully shifted the sub- ject of conversation to that of women. Would I not like a wife ? He would give me one. Did he not give us plenty to eat, or did he not use me well ? " All very true and very good," says I ; " but I am not like a black man, who has no book to write. I must know the day on which I am to go, as I must have all my books ready for the King of England. Everything I give away is in that book, everything I get, and everything I say." All my talk would not make him fix a day, but he said I should have a servant of his to the King of Zouri ; that that road was safe. I could go in four days to Zara in Bamba, which was tributary to him. There I could cross the river Moussa, which ran into the Quorra, three days' distance ; that the Moussa came from the northwest, and in it were plenty of hippopotami. He is still particularly shy of giving any information about the Quorra, of which, per- haps, he has none. At one time he says it runs into the sea between Jabno and Benin, and at another that it passes Benin. He now shifted the subject of conversation \ told me he did not know how many wives or how many children he had got, but he was sure that his wives alone, hand to hand, would reach from hence to Jannah. . . . The king had his skin rubbed over with the powder of a species of red- wood, ground very fine, and made like a paste ; it is used by all classes. . . . We found the king seated in an old easy-chair covered with crimson damask, the caboceers at some distance in front, facing him, dressed in leopard-skin robes, their 214 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. heads well dusted, and also their cheeks, by rubbing their faces in the dust while making their prostrations. It is the court etiquette here to appear in a loose cloth tied under one arm, passed over the other shoulder and hang- ing down to the feet in a graceful manner ; but no tobes, no beads, no coral, or grandeur of any kind, must appear but on the king alone. The cane I made him a present of holds, on all occasions, a conspicuous place ; when he walks he carries it, and when he sits it is stuck in the ground some distance before him. He presented us with gooro nuts, and asked me to fire off some rockets to-night. 13//^. This morning our friend and guardian, the fat officer, was drunk ; when in that state he begs everything he sees. He got Mr. Houston and myself into the house to see him dance, but independently of his want of stead- iness he was the most clumsy and unwieldy performer I ever saw. He begged we would also dine with him, but I complained of illness, and Houston ran off. He fol- lowed and made Mr. Houston hand out the flask, which, without waiting for a glass, he put to his mouth, and drank upwards of a pint of raw rum without drawing his breath. He said that rum was good and made him fat. . . . When a king of Youriba dies, the caboceer of Jannah, three other head caboceers, four women, and a great many favorite slaves and others, are obliged to swallow poison given by fetishmen in a parrot's ^gg ; should this not take effect, the person is provided with a rope to hang himself in his own house. No public sacrifices are used, at least no human sacrifices, and no one was allowed to die at the death of the last king, as he did not die a natural death, having been murdered by one of his own sons, — not the present king. . . . MORE DELAYS, 215 There is a pleasant walk through a large enclosed park at the foot of the hills, between the house of the king and that of his wives, enclosed by a clay wall. Some parts of the park are planted with corn, yams, etc., and others studded with beautiful shady trees. The king was sitting under the shade of one of the trees. I observed to him that I had been here twenty-four days, and was anxious to go on my journey, as the rains were about to set in. He asked if all the white men were going. I said " Only myself and my servants.*' As I knew him to be skilful in evasive answers, and always to have one ready at hand, I said '' Fix a day.'' His reply was, " Every one would say the white men came to see the King of Youriba, and brought him large presents, and requested him to give them a good passage to where they wanted to go* He gave them a bad path ; they were robbed and killed. All good people would say that the King of Youriba did not do good to white men." He had been busy with his people these last four days, but he had sent a messenger to get a good path. I asked him positively to fix a day, as I could not be put off any longer. After consulting with his people he said, " Nine days." I said, " Well, I shall remain nine days," without saying one word that I had everything ready to go. . . . I thought this a proper time to hint a gentle complaint against our fat guardian for having for some time appro- priated our provisions to his own use. The old rogue swore through thick and thin that he had given us every- thing, even some goats which I had actually purchased at market, but which he declared he had supplied himself, I told the king it was of no use talking against a rogue like his eunuch, therefore I should hold my tongue. 2l6 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, A PANTOMIME. It is the custom during the time that the caboceers from the different towns remain on their visit to the king to act plays or pantomimes, or whatever they might be called. I shall attempt a description of the one I saw to- day. The place chosen for this pastime is the king's park, fronting the principal door where His Majesty usually sits. A fetish house occupies the left side ; to the south are two very romantic and large blocks of granite, by the side of which is an old withered tree; on the east are some beautiful shady trees, and on the north His Majesty's house, from whence he views the scene ; in the centre are two beautiful clumps of trees, in one of which is a tall fan-palm, overlooking the whole area, — a space that may include some seven or eight hundred yards square. Under these clumps of trees were seated the actors, dressed in large sacks, covering every part of the body ; the head most fan- tastically decorated with strips of rags, damask, silk, and cotton, of as many glaring colors as it was possible. The king's servants attended to keep the peace and to prevent the crowd from breaking into the square in which the actors were assembled. Musicians, also, attended with drums, horns, and whistles, which were beaten and blown without intermission. The first act consisted in dancing and tumbling in sacks, which they performed to admira- tion, considering they could not see, and had not the free use of their feet and hands. The second act consisted in Catching the Boa- Constrictor. First one of the sack-men came in front and knelt down on his hands and feet ; then came out a tall, majestic figure, having on a head-dress and mask which baffle all description ; it was of a glossy black color, sometimes like a lion couchant over the crest BOA-CONSTRICTOR. 21/ of a helmet ; at another like a black head with a large wig; at every turn he made it changed its appearance. This figure held in its right hand a sword, and by its superior dress and motions appeared to be the director of the scene ; for not a word was spoken by the actors. The manager, as I shall call him, then came up to the man who was lying in the sack; another sack-dancer was brought in in his sack, who, by a wave of the sword, was laid down at the other's head or feet ; he having ripped the ends of both sacks, the two crawled into one. There was now great waving of the manager's sword ; indeed, I thought that heads were going to be taken off, as all the actors were assembled round the party lying down, but in a few minutes they all cleared away except the manager, who gave two or three flourishes with his sword, when the representation of the boa-constrictor began. The animal put its head out of the bag in which it was contained, attempting to bite the manager, but at a wave of the sword it threw its head in another direction to avert the blow ; it then began gradually to creep out of the bag, and went through the motions of a snake in a very natural manner, though it appeared to be rather full in the belly ; opening and shutting its mouth, which I suspect was the performer's two hands, in the most natural way imaginable. The length of the creature was spun out to about fourteen feet ; and the color and action were well represented by a covering of painted cloth imitating that of the boa. After following the manager round the park for some time, and attempting to bite him, which he averted by a wave of the sword, a sign was made for the body of actors to come up. When the manager, approaching the tail, made flour- ishes with his sword as if hacking at that part of the body, the snake gasped, twisted up, and seemed as if in great 2 1 8 STORIES OF DISCO VER Y. torture ; and when nearly dead it was shouldered by the masked actors, still making attempts to bite, but was car- ried off in triumph to the fetish-house. The third act consisted of The White Devil. The actors' having retired to some distance in the background, one of them was left in the centre, whose sack, gradually fall- ing down, exposed a white head, at which all the crowd gave a shout that rent the air ; they appeared, indeed, to enjoy this sight as the perfection of the actor's art. The whole body was at last cleared of the incumbrance of the sack, when it exhibited the appearance of a human figure cast in white wax, of the middle size, miserably thin, and starved, and cold. It frequently went through the motion of taking snuff, and rubbing its hands ; when it walked, it was with the most awkward gait, treading as the most ten- der-footed white man would do in walking barefooted for the first time over new-frozen ground. The spectators often appealed to us as to the excellence of the performance, and entreated I would look and be attentive to what was going on. I pretended to be fully as much pleased with this caricature of a white man as they could be, and cer- tainly the actor burlesqued the part to admiration. This being concluded, the performers all retired to the fetish- house. Between each act we had choral songs by the king's women, in which the assembled crowd joined their voices. . . . The government of Youriba is hereditary, and an abso- lute despotism, every subject being considered the slave of the king ; but its administration is mild and humane, and appears to have been so for a long period. The only distinction of rank that obtains is that of caboceer, who may be considered as the governor of a distant town or province, the appointment of these governors depending DEPARTURE. 219 on the will of the king. The military force consists of the caboceers and their own immediate retainers, which, al- lowing one hundred and fifty to each, will not give such immense armies as we have sometimes heard stated ; that of Youriba is perhaps as numerous as any of the king- doms of Africa. The following day, in the afternoon, I had a visit from the king. I asked him why I was longer detained ; said I had waited with patience through the several times he had appointed for my starting, but it appeared I was just as far from getting away as ever. He hesitated, and gave me an evasive answer. I asked him to tell me distinctly. No, he could not do that, as he wished to^et me a large horse to ride before I went. I said I would ride a small one. He then said he had only one. I asked him if he would allow me to hire horses of the caboceers. " What," he replied, "will they say of me, if I allow you to go away in this way, after your king sending me such a pres- ent?" He then begged I would stop three days more, until he could get horses, and I should certainly go. I pointed out to him the number of times he had broken his word. He said the reason he would not fix a day now was that he might not break his word again. It was not before the 6th that the king paid me another visit, and told me that the Yarro messengers were ready, and that I might go to-morrow or next day, and that he intended to give me a horse. I thanked him, and told him I was quite ready and determined to set off to-mor- row, as delays here were dangerous. Accordingly, the next day, when everything was ready for starting, I was again visited by the king, who, after giving me in charge of what he called the Yarro messenger, told me that the Sultan Yarro would take the greatest care of my baggage, 220 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. and forward me to the king of Zouri. He then made me a present of a horse, for which I thanked him, and took my leave. KING YARRO. At noon arrived at the town of Algi, which is now rising from its ruins, it having shared the same fate as the villages I had passed. The inhabitants are now returning to their ruined dwellings, some of which they have already repaired. They said they had nothing but a little grain and a few yams for seed ; of these they gave me part, and the best house in the town. The Yarro messenger had not made his appearance, and I now learned that Algi no longer be- longed to the King of Youriba, but to Yarro, the chief or sultan of Kiama, a petty state of the kingdom of Borgoo ; that Kiama was the name of the province, and Yarro the name of the sultan, as he is called. I gave the King of Youriba's brother, who commanded the escort, a fathom of red cloth and ten coral beads, as he is to return to Katunga as soon as he has seen me off from this place. The King of Youriba^s brother declared that he or his people had had nothing to eat all night, or since he had left Assina ; yet he got the caboceer of the place to send me a pig, for which I gave five coral beads. The man said he was ashamed to see me, as he had nothing to give me. Algi consists of three walled villages, and, before it was burnt down, had been of considerable size ; they pointed out a rock close to the south side of the town, from whence the Fellatahs flew the pigeons to set fire to it. The mode of doing it was by making combustibles fast to the tails of the birds, which, on being let loose from the hand, imme- diately flew to the tops of the thatched houses, while the Fellatahs kept up a sharp fire of arrows to prevent the in- habitants from extinguishing the flames. X. WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. JOHN PHELPS IS a Western boy, whose father has a wheat-farm in Minnesota. While his father and mother were in Europe, John was spending his winter with the Longs, and Bedford Long brought him to the parties at Colonel Ingham's. Colonel Ingham was talking to him about the acquisition, by the United States, of the country between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. It was bought from Napoleon I. for the sum of fifteen million dollars. So little was its value apprehended by any of the parties to the pur- chase, that even Robert Livingston, the truly great man who had the courage to take the responsibility of buying it, supposed that we should make no use of the greater part of it. In a letter to Mr. Jefferson, who was then President, he said that he had already made arrange- ments by which another power, which would make us no trouble, would take it all off our hands, leaving us New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi, — which he thought was all we should want. In another letter, he says he has " told them " that we should not send a settler west of the Mississippi in a hundred years.^ But since this statement was made there have been 1 See '' Stories of Adventure," p. 256. 222 STORIES OF DISCOVERY . established the States of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska from this territory. Our claim to the Pacific States comes from other sources. As soon as the territory was ours, Jefferson sent an expedition to cross to the Pacific Ocean. This was Lewis and Clarke's expedition, of which the young people had read something the year before.^ Their book is dull, the abridgment, as always, is more dull ; but there are some bright episodes. " There was one we used to read at school," said Un^ cle Fritz, " about the escape of a hunter from the Black- foot Indians. They do not call them Blackfoots now." The fur-traders from New England, and Mr. Astor from New York, soon obtained a foothold on the coast. Mr. Astor founded the fur-trading establishment which took the name of Astoria, at the mouth of the Colum- bia River. A different set of books from the United States Reports illustrates that sea-coast history. " You had one of these," Uncle Fritz said, "in Cleve- land's Voyages. Mr. Irving's * Astoria ' is another. Here are some queer pictures of coast life in this Span- ish exploration book. Those people went up just at the end of the last century." Mr. Irving made another entertaining book in " Cap- tain Bonneville's Adventures." The children had al- ready seen Major Long's book, and Captain Pike's.^ Captain Pike was afterwards killed by the explosion of a mine on the Canadian frontier; a very fine officer, whom it was a pity to lose. " Of the whole series," said Uncle Fritz, " none chal- 1 See *' Stories of Adventure,'^ p. 256. 2 *' Stories of Adventure,'' p. 257. TRAPPERS' LIFE. 223 lenged more attention, or deserved it more, than * Fre- mont's Travels.' He made a great many discoveries, of which the most remarkable was that the Sacramento River was virtually a river of the Pacific coast, and ran wholly west of the Sierra Nevada. When Whitney first planned the railroad across, he made it run up the supposed valley of the Sacramento, across the Sierra Nevada. Fremont went across again and again, one winter, with terrible suffering; and it proved that there was no such valley there.'* That afternoon the children dipped at different places, and among other passages read these which follow. But in the series of a hundred or more volumes of the Government Reports, which Uncle Fritz showed them, they found many more narratives worth reading, besides what are copied here. TRAPPERS' LIFE. June 28. We halted to noon at an open reach of the river, which occupies rather more than a fourth of the valley, here only about four miles broad. The camp had been disposed with the usual precaution, the horses grazing at a little distance, attended by the guard, and we were all sitting quietly at our dinner on the grass, when suddenly we heard the startling cry, " Du monde ! " In an instant every man's weapon was in his hand, the horses were driven in, hobbled, and picketed, and horsemen were galloping at full speed in the direction of the new-comers, screaming and yelling with the wildest excitement. " Get ready, my lads ! " said the leader of the approaching party to his men, when our wild-looking horsemen were discovered bear- 224 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. ing down upon them ; " nous allons attraper des coups de baguette." They proved to be a small party of fourteen, under the charge of a man named John Lee, and, with their baggage and provisions strapped to their backs, were making their way on foot to the frontier. A brief account of their fortunes will give some idea of naviga- tion in the Nebraska. Sixty days since, they had left the mouth of Laramie's Fork, some three hundred miles above, in barges laden with the furs of the American Fur Company. They started with the annual flood, and, drawing but nine inches water, hoped to make a speedy and prosperous voyage to St. Louis ; but, after a lapse of forty days, found themselves only one hun- dred and thirty miles from their point of departure. They came down rapidly as far as Scott's Bluffs, where their difficulties began. Sometimes they came upon places where the water was spread over a great extent, and here they toiled from morning until night, endeav- oring to drag their boat through the sands, making only two or three miles in as many days. Sometimes they would enter an arm of the river, where there appeared a fine channel, and, after descending prosperously for eight or ten miles, would come suddenly upon dry sands, and be compelled to return, dragging their boat for days against the rapid current ; and at others they came upon places where the water lay in holes, and, getting out to float off their boat, would fall into water up to their necks, and the next moment tumble over against a sand-bar. Discouraged, at length, and finding the Platte growing every day more shallow, they dis- charged the principal part of their cargoes one hundred and thirty miles below Fort Laramie, which they se- cured as well as possible, and, leaving a few men to LA TULIPE. 225 guard them, attempted to continue their voyage, laden with some light furs and their personal baggage. After fifteen or twenty days more struggling in the sands, during which they made but one hundred and forty miles, they sunk their barges, made a cache of their remaining furs and property, in trees on the bank, and, packing on his back what each man could carry, had commenced, the day before we encountered them, their journey on foot to St. Louis. We laughed then at their forlorn and vagabond appear- ance, and, in our turn, a month or two afterwards, fur- nished the same occasion for merriment to others. Even their stock of tobacco, that sine qua non of a voyageur, without which the night fire is gloomy, was entirely ex- hausted. However, we shortened their homeward jour- ney by a small supply from our own provision. They gave us the welcome intelligence that the buffalo were abundant some two days' march in advance, and made us a present of some choice pieces, which were a very ac- ceptable change from our salt pork. In the interchange of news, and the renewal of old acquaintanceships, we found wherewithal to fill a busy hour ; then we mounted our horses, and they shouldered their packs, and we shook hands and parted. Among them, I had found an old companion on the northern prairie, a hardened and hardly served veteran of the mountains, who had been as much hacked and scarred as an old moustache of Napoleon's " old guard.'' He flourished in the sobriquet of La Tulipe, and his real name I never knew. Finding that he was going to the States only because his company was bound in that direction, and that he was rather more will- ing to return with me, I took him again into my service. We travelled this day but seventeen miles. t 226 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. At our evening camp, about sunset, three figures w^re discovered approaching, which our glasses made out to be Indians. They proved to be Cheyennes, — two men, and a boy of thirteen. About a month since, they had left their people on the south fork of the river, some three hundred miles to the westward, and a party of only four in number had been to the Pawnee villages on a horse- stealing excursion, from which they were returning unsuc- cessful. They were miserably mounted on wild horses from the Arkansas plains, and had no other weapons than bows and long spears ; and had they been discovered by the Pawnees, could not by any possibility have escaped. They were mortified by their ill success, and said the Pawnees were cowards, who shut up their horses in their lodges at night. I invited them to supper with me, and Randolph and the young Cheyenne, who had been eying each other suspiciously and curiously, soon became inti- mate friends. After supper, we sat down on the grass, and I placed a sheet of paper between us, on which they traced rudely, but with a certain degree of relative truth, the watercourses of the country which lay between us and their villages, and of which I desired to have some infor- mation. Their companions, they told us, had taken a nearer route over the hills ; but they had mounted one of the summits to spy out the country, whence they had caught a glimpse of our party, and, confident of good treatment at the hands of the whites, hastened to join company. Latitude of the camp, 40° 39' 51". BUFFALO. 227 A HERD OF BUFFALO. The air was keen the next morning at sunrise, the ther- mometer standing at 44°, and it was sufficiently cold to make overcoats very comfortable. A few miles brought us into the midst of the buffalo, swarming in immense numbers over the plains, where they had left scarcely a blade of grass standing. Mr. Preuss, who was sketching at a little distance in the rear, had at first noted them as large groves of timber. In the sight of such a mass of life, the traveller feels a strange emotion of grandeur. We had heard from a distance a dull and confused murmur- ing, and, when we came in view of their dark masses, there was not one among us who did not feel his heart beat quicker. It was the early part of the day, when the herds are feeding, and everywhere they were in motion. Here and there a huge old bull was rolling in the grass, and clouds of dust rose in the air from various parts of the bands, each the scene of some obstinate fight. Indians and buffalo make the poetry and life of the prairie, and our camp was full of their exhilaration. In place of the quiet monotony of the march, relieved only by the crack- ing of the whip, and an " Avance done ! enfant de garce ! " shouts and songs resounded from every part of the line, and our evening camp was always the commencement of a feast, which terminated only with our departure on the following morning. At any time of the night might be seen pieces of the most delicate and choicest meat, roast- ing en appolas, on sticks around the fire, and the guard were never without company. With pleasant weather and no enemy to fear, an abundance of the most excellent meat, and no scarcity of bread or tobacco, they were 228 S7VRIES OF DISCOVERY, enjoying the oasis of a voyageur's life. Three cows were killed to-day. Kit Carson had shot one, and was contin- uing the chase in the midst of another herd, when his horse fell headlong, but sprang up and joined the flying band. Though considerably hurt, he had the good for- tune to break no bones ; and Maxwell, who was mounted on a fleet hunter, captured the runaway after a hard chase. He was on the point of shooting him, to avoid the loss of his bridle (a handsomely mounted Spanish one), when he found that his horse was able to come up with him. Ani- mals are frequently lost in this way ; and it is necessary to keep close watch over them, in the vicinity of the buf- falo, in the midst of which they scour ofl* to the plains, and are rarely retaken. One of our mules took a sudden freak into his head, and joined a neighboring band to- day. As we were not in a condition to lose horses, I sent several men in pursuit, and remained in camp, in the hope of recovering him ; but lost the afternoon to no purpose, as we did not see him again. Astronomical observations placed us in longitude ioo° 05' 47'', latitude 40° 49' 55". A GOOD RUN. July i. Along our road to-day the prairie bottom was more elevated and dry, and the hills which border the right side of the river higher, and more broken and pic- turesque in the outline. The country, too, was better timbered. As we were riding quietly along the bank, a grand herd of buffalo, some seven or eight hundred in number, came crowding up from the river, where they had been to drink, and commenced crossing the plain slowly, eating as they went. The wind was favorable \ CHARGING THE HERD, 229 the coolness of the morning invited to exercise ; the ground was apparently good, and the distance across the prairie (two or three miles) gave us a fine opportunity to charge them before they could get among the river hills. It was too fine a prospect for a chase, to be lost ; and, halting for a few moments, the hunters were brought up and saddled, and Kit Carson, Maxwell, and I started together. They were now somewhat less than half a mile distant, and we rode easily along until within about three hundred yards, when a sudden agitation, a wavering in the band, and a galloping to and fro of some which were scattered along the skirts, gave us the intimation that we were discovered. We started together at a hand gallop, riding steadily abreast of each other^ and here the inter- est of the chase became so engrossingly intense that we were sensible to nothing else. We were now closing upon them rapidly, and the front of the mass was already in rapid motion for the hills, and in a few seconds the movement had communicated itself to the whole herd. A crowd of bulls, as usual, brought up the rear, and every now and then some of them faced about, and then dashed on after the band a short distance, and turned and looked again, as if more than half inclined to stand and fight. In a few moments, however, during which we had been quickening our pace, the rout was universal, and we were going over the ground like a hurricane. When at about thirty yards, we gave the usual shout (the hunter's pas de charge) , and broke into the herd. We entered on the side, the mass giving way in every direc- tion in their heedless course. Many of the bulls, less active and less fleet than the cows, paying no attention to the ground, and occupied solely with the hunter, were precipitated to the earth with great force, rolling over and 230 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. over with the violence of the shock, and hardly distin- guishable in the dust. We separated on entering, each singling out his game. My horse was a trained hunter, famous irj the West under the name of Proveau, and, with his eyes flashing, and the foam flying from his mouth, sprang on after the cow Uke a tiger. In a few moments he brought me along- side of her, and, rising in the stirrups, I fired at the dis- tance of a yard, the ball entering at the termination of the long hair, and passing near the heart. She fell headlong at the report of the gun, and, checking my horse, I looked around for my companions. At a little distance. Kit was on the ground, engaged in tying his horse to the horns of a cow which he was preparing to cut up. Among the scattered bands, at some distance below, I caught a glimpse of Maxwell ; and while I was looking, a light wreath of white smoke curled away from his gun, from which I was too far to hear the report. Nearer, and between me and the hills, towards which they were directing their course, was the body of the herd, and, giving my horse the rein, we dashed after them. A thick cloud of dust hung upon their rear, which filled my mouth and eyes, and nearly smothered me. In the midst of this I could see nothing, and the buflalo were not distinguishable until within thirty feet. They crowded together more densely still as I came upon them, and rushed along in such a compact body that I could not obtain an entrance, — the horse almost leaping upon them. In a few moments the mass divided to the right and left, the horns clattering with a noise heard above everything else, and my horse darted into the opening. Five or six bulls charged on us as we dashed along the line, but were left far behind; and, singling out a cow, I gave her my fire, but struck too BRADY'S ISLAND, 23 1 high. She gave a tremendous leap, and scoured on swifter than before. I reined up my horse, and the band swept on like a torrent, and left the place quiet and clear. Our chase had led us into dangerous ground. A prairie- dog village, so thickly settled that there were three or four holes in every twenty yards square, occupied the whole bottom for nearly two miles in length. Looking around, I saw only one of the hunters, nearly out of sight, and the long dark line of our caravan crawling along, three or four miles distant. After a march of twenty-four miles, we encamped at nightfall, one mile and a half above the lower end of Brady's Island. The breadth of this arm of the river was eight hundred and eighty yards, and the water nowhere two feet in depth. The island bears the name of a man killed on this spot some years ago. His party had encamped here, three in company, and one of the number went off to hunt, leaving Brady and his com- panion together. These two had frequently quarrelled, and on the hunter's return he found Brady dead, and was told that he had shot himself accidentally. He was buried here on the bank ; but, as usual, the wolves had torn him out, and some human bones that were lying on the ground we supposed were his. Troops of wolves, that were hanging on the skirts of the buffalo, kept up an uninterrupted howling during the night, venturing almost into camp. In the morning they were sitting at a short distance, barking, and impatiently waiting our departure, to fall upon the bones. 232 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. THEY RUN A CANON. We re-embarked at nine o'clock, and in about twenty minutes reached the next canon. Landing on a rocky shore at its commencement, we ascended the ridge to reconnoitre. Portage was out of the question. So far as we could see, the jagged rocks pointed out the course of the canon on a winding line of seven or eight miles. It was simply a narrow, dark chasm in the rock ; and here the perpendicular faces were much higher than in the previous pass, being at this end two to three hun- dred, and farther down, as we afterwards ascertained, five hundred feet in vertical height. Our previous suc- cess had made us bold, and we determined again to run the canon. Everything was secured as firmly as possi- ble ; and having divested ourselves of the greater part of our clothing, we pushed into the stream. To save our chronometer from accident, Mr. Preuss took it, and attempted to proceed along the shore on the masses of rock, which in places were piled up on either side ; but, after he had walked about five minutes, everything Hke shore disappeared, and the vertical wall came squarely down into the water. He therefore waited until we came up. An ugly pass lay before us. We had made fast to the stern of the boat a strong rope about fifty feet long ; and three of the men clambered along among the rocks, and with this rope let her down slowly through the pass. In several places high rocks lay scattered about in the channel ; and in the narrows it required all our strength and skill to avoid staving the boat on the sharp points. In one of these, the boat proved a little too broad, and stuck fast for an instant, while the A CANON. 233 water flew over us ; fortunately, it was but for an instant, as our united strength forced her immediately through. The water swept overboard only a sextant and a pair of saddlebags. I caught the sextant as it passed by me ; but the saddlebags became the prey of the whirlpools. We reached the place where Mr. Preuss was standing, took him on board, and, with the aid of the boat, put the men with the rope on the succeeding pile of rocks. We found this passage much worse than the previous one, and our position was rather a bad one. To go back, was impossible ; before us, the cataract was a sheet of foam ; and shut up in the chasm by the rocks, which, in some places, seemed almost to meet overhead, the roar of the water was deafening. We pushed off again ; but, after making a little distance, the force of the current became too great for the men on shore, and two of them let go the rope. Lajeunesse, the third man, hung on, and was jerked headforemost into the river from a rock about twelve feet high ; and down the boat shot like an arrow, Basil following us in the rapid current, and exerting all his strength to keep in mid- channel, — his head only seen occasionally like a black spot in the white foam. How far we went, I do not ex- actly know j but we succeeded in turning the boat into an eddy below. " 'Cre Dieu," said Basil Lajeunesse, as he arrived immediately after us, " Je crois bien que j'ai nage un demi mile.'' He had owed his life to his skill as a swimmer, and I determined to take him and the two others on board, and trust to skill and fortune to reach the other end in safety. We placed ourselves on our knees, with the short paddles in our hands, the most skilful boatman being at the bow ; and again we commenced our rapid descent. We cleared rock after 234 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. rock, and shot past fall after fall, our little boat seeming to play with the cataract. We became flushed with suc- cess, and familiar with the danger ; and, yielding to the excitement of the occasion, broke forth together into a Canadian boat-song. Singing, or rather shouting, we dashed along ; and were, I believe, in the midst of the chorus, when the boat struck a concealed rock immedi- ately at the foot of a fall, which whirled her over in an instant. Three of my men could not swim, and my first feeling was to assist them, and save some of our effects ; but a sharp concussion or two convinced me that I had not yet saved myself. A few strokes brought me into an eddy, and I landed on a pile of rocks on the left side. Looking around, I saw that Mr. Preuss had gained the shore on the same side, about twenty yards below ; and a little climbing and swimming soon brought him to my side. On the opposite side, against the wall, lay the boat, bottom up ; and Lambert was in the act of saving Descoteaux, whom he had grasped by the hair, and w^ho could not swim ; " Lache pas," said he, as I afterward learned, " lache pas, cher frere." " Grains pas," was the reply, '' je m'en vais mourir avant que de te lacher." Such was the reply of courage and gener- osity in this danger. For a hundred yards below, the current was covered with floating books and boxes, bales of blankets, and scattered articles of clothing; and so strong and boiling was the stream that even our heavy instruments, which were all in cases, kept on the surface, and the sextant, circle, and the long black box of the telescope were in view at once. For a moment I felt somewhat disheartened. All our books, almost every record of the journey, our journals and regis- ters of astronomical and barometrical observations, THE WRECK, 235 had been lost in a moment. But it was no time to in- dulge in regrets ; and I immediately set about endeav- oring to save something from the wreck. Making our- selves understood as well as possible by signs (for nothing could be heard in the roar of waters), we com- menced our operations. Of everything on board, the only article that had been saved was my double-barrelled gun, which Descoteaux had caught, and clung to with drowning tenacity. The men continued down the river on the left bank. Mr. Preuss and myself descended on the side we were on ; and Lajeunesse, with a paddle in his hand, jumped on the boat alone, and continued down the canon. She was now light, and cleared every bad place with much less difficulty. In a short time he was joined by Lambert ; and the search was continued for about a mile and a half, which was as far as the boat could proceed in the pass. Here the walls were about five hundred feet high, and the fragments of rocks from above had choked the river into a hollow pass, but one or two feet above the surface. Through this and the interstices of the rock the water found its way. Favored beyond our expecta- tions, all of our registers had been recovered, with the exception of one of my journals, which contained the notes and incidents of travel, and topographical descrip- tions, a number of scattered astronomical observations, principally meridian altitudes of the sun, and our baro- metrical register west of Laramie. Fortunately, our other journals contained duplicates of the most im- portant barometrical observations which had been taken in the mountains. These, with a few scattered notes, were all that had been preserved of our meteorological observations. In addition to these, we saved the circle ; 236 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, and these, with a few blankets, constituted everything that had been rescued from the waters. The day was running rapidly away, and it was necessary to reach Goat Island, whither the party had preceded us, before night. In this uncertain country the traveller is so much in the power of chance, that we became some- what uneasy in regard to them. Should anything have occurred, in the brief interval of our separation, to pre- vent our rejoining them, our situation would be rather a desperate one. We had not a morsel of provisions, our arms and ammunition were gone, and we were en- tirely at the mercy of any straggling party of savages, and not a little in danger of starvation. We therefore set out at once in two parties, — Mr. Preuss and myself on the left, and the men on the opposite side of the river. Climbing out of the canon, we found ourselves in a very broken country, where we were not yet able to recognize any locality. In the course of our descent through the canon, the rock, which at the upper end was of the decomposing granite, changed into a varied sand- stone formation. The hills and points of the ridges were covered with fragments of a yellow sandstone, of which the strata were sometimes displayed in the broken ravines which interrupted our course, and made our walk extremely fatiguing. At one point of the canon the red argillaceous sandstone rose in a wall of five hundred feet, surmounted by a stratum of white sand- stone ; and in an opposite ravine a column of red sand- stone rose, in form like a steeple, about one hundred and fifty feet high. The scenery was extremely pic- turesque, and, notwithstanding our forlorn condition, we were frequently obliged to stop and admire it. Our progress was not very rapid. We had emerged from, 'HOT SPRING GATE, 23/ the water half naked, and, on arriving at the top of the precipice, I found myself with only one moccasin. The fragments of rock made w^alking painful, and I was fre- quently obliged to stop and pull out the thorns of the cactus, here the prevailing plant, and with which a few minutes' walk covered the bottom of my feet. From this ridge the river emerged into a smiling prairie, and, descending to the bank for water, we were joined by Benoist. The rest of the party were out of sight, having taken a more inland route. We crossed the river re- peatedly, — sometimes able to ford it, and sometimes swimming, — climbed over the ridges of two more canons, and tovvards evening reached the cut, which w^e here named the Hot Spring Gate. On our previous visit in July we had not entered this pass, reserving it for our descent in the boat ; and when we entered it this evening Mr. Preuss was a few hundred feet in ad- vance. Heated with the long march, he came suddenly upon a fine bold spring gushing from the rock, about ten feet above the river. Eager to enjoy the crystal water, he threw himself down for a hasty draught, and took a mouthful of water almost boiling hot. He said nothing to Benoist, who laid himself down to drink ; but the steam from the water arrested his eagerness, and he escaped the hot draught. We had no thermometer to ascertain the temperature, but I could hold my hand in the water just long enough to count two seconds. There are eight or ten of these springs, discharging themselves by streams large enough to be called runs. A loud hollow noise was heard from the rock, which I supposed to be produced by the fall of the water. The strata immediately where they issue is a fine white and cal- careous sandstone, covered with an incrustation of com- 238 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. mon salt. Leaving this Thermopylae of the West, in a short walk we reached the red ridge which has been described as lying just above Goat Island. Ascending this, we found some fresh tracks and a button, which showed that the other men had already arrived. A shout from the man who first reached the top of the ridge, responded to from below, informed us that our friends were all on the island ; and we were soon among them. We found some pieces of buffalo standing around the fire for us, and managed to get some dry clothes among the people. A sudden storm of rain drove us into the best shelter we could find, where we slept soundly, after one of the most fatiguing days I have ever experienced. THE SALT LAKE. September 9. The day was clear and calm ; the thermometer at sunrise at 49"^. As is usual with the trap- pers on the eve of any enterprise, our people had made dreams, and theirs happened to be a bad one, — one which always preceded evil, — and consequently they looked very gloomy this morning ; but we hurried through our breakfast, in order to make an early start, and have all the day before us for our adventure. The channel in a short distance became so shallow that our navigation was at an end, being merely a sheet of soft mud, with a few inches of water, and sometimes none at all, forming the low-water shore of the lake. All this place was absolutely covered with flocks of screaming plover. We took off our clothes, and, getting overboard, commenced dragging the boat, — making, by this opera- tion, a very curious trail, and a very disagreeable smell SALT LAKE, 239 in Stirring up the mud, as we sank above the knee at every step. The water here was still fresh, with only an insipid and disagreeable taste, probably derived from the bed of fetid mud. After proceeding in this way about a mile, we came to a small black ridge on the bottom, beyond which the water became suddenly salt, beginning gradually to deepen, and the bottom was sandy and firm. It was a remarkable division, separat- ing the fresh water of the rivers from the briny water of the lake, which was entirely saturated with common salt. Pushing our little vessel across the narrow boun- dary, we sprang on board, and at length were afloat on the waters of the unknown sea. We did not steer for the mountainous islands, but directed our course towards a lower one, which it had been decided we should first visit, the summit of which was formed like the crater at the upper end of Bear River Valley. So long as we could touch the bottom with our paddles, we were very gay ; but gradually, as the water deepened, we became more still in our frail bateau of gum-cloth distended with air, and with pasted seams. Although the day was very calm, there was a considerable swell on the lake; and there were white patches of foam on the surface, which were slowly mov- ing to the southward, indicating the set of a current in that direction, and recalling the recollection of the whirl- pool stories. The water continued to deepen as we ad- vanced, the lake becoming almost transparently clear, of an extremely beautiful bright green color ; and the spray, which was thrown into the boat and over our clothes, was directly converted into a crust of common salt, which covered also our hands and arms. " Captain,^' said Carson, who for some time had been looking sus- 240 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, piciously at some whitening appearances outside the nearest islands, "what are those yonder? — won't you just take a look with the glass ? " We ceased paddling for a moment, and found them to be the caps of the waves that were beginning to break under the force of a strong breeze that was coming up the lake. The form of the boat seemed to be an admirable one, and it rode on the waves like a water bird, but at the same time it was extremely slow in its progress. When we were a little more than half-way across the reach, two of the divisions between the cyUnders gave way, and it required the constant use of the bellows to keep in a sufficient quantity of air. For a long time we scarcely seemed to approach our island, but gradually we worked across the rougher sea of the open channel into the smoother water under the lee of the island, and began to discover that what we took for a long row of pelicans, ranged on the beach, were only low cliffs whitened with salt by the spray of the waves ; and about noon we reached the shore, the transparency of the water enabling us to see the bottom at a considerable depth. Carrying with us the barometer and other instruments, in the afternoon we ascended to the highest point of the island, — a bare, rocky peak, eight hundred feet above the lake. Standing on the summit, we enjoyed an ex- tended view of the lake, enclosed in a basin of rugged mountains, which sometimes left marshy flats and exten- sive bottoms between them and the shore, and in other places came directly down into the water with bold and precipitous bluffs. Following with our glasses the irreg- ular shores, we searched for some indications of a com- munication with other bodies of water, or the entrance of other rivers ; but the distance was so great that we SALT LAKE, 24 1 could make out nothing with certainty. To the south- ward, several peninsular mountains, three thousand or four thousand feet high, entered the lake, appearing, so far as the distance and our position enabled us to deter- mine, to be connected by flats and low ridges, with the mountains in the rear. These are probably the islands usually indicated on maps of this region as entirely de- tached from the shore. At the season of high waters in the spring, it is probable that all the marshes and low grounds are overflowed, and the surface of the lake con- siderably greater. In several places the view was of un- limited extent, — here and there a rocky islet appearing above the water at a great distance ; and beyond, every- thing was vague and undefined. As we looked over the vast expanse of water spread out beneath us, and strained our eyes along the silent shores over which hung so much doubt and uncertainty, and which were so full of inter- est to us, I could hardly repress the almost irresistible desire to continue our exploration ; but the lengthening snow on the mountains was a plain indication of the advancing season, and our frail linen boat appeared so insecure that I was unwilling to trust our lives to the uncertainties of the lake.-^ I therefore unwillingly re- 1 The reader must observe that this is the first careful survey of Salt Lake, of which the existence had been known ever since the explorations by Coronado described in "Stories of Adventure." The Spanish dis- coverers were sometimes confused when the natives spoke of this Salt Sea, supposing, not unnaturally, that it was the ocean. Colonel Fremont's sur- vey led almost directly to the colonization of this valley by the Mormons, who have held it ever since. The pioneer party of Mormons left Illinois in 1846. Their chief, Brigham Young, arrived in 1847, and the great body of emigrants in 1848. They have applied the Spanish customs of irriga- tion to the arid land, and have made it support them, quite independently of the outside world. The Union Pacific Railroad, however, which has a branch to Salt Lake City, put an end to their singular isolation. 16 242 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. solved to terminate our survey here, and remain satis- fied for the present with what we had been able to add to the unknown geography of the region. We felt pleasure also in remembering that we were the first who, in the traditionary annals of the country, had visited the islands, and broken, with the cheerful sound of human voices, the long solitude of the place. From the point where we were standing the ground fell off on every side to the water, giving us a perfect view of the island, which is twelve or thirteen miles in circumference, being simply a rocky hill, on which there is neither water nor trees of any kind ; although the Fremontia vermicularis^ which was in great abundance, might easily be mistaken for timber at a distance. The plant seemed here to delight in a congenial air, growing in extraordinary luxu- riance seven to eight feet high, and was very abundant on the upper parts of the island, where it was almost the only plant. This is eminently a saline shrub \ its leaves have a very salt taste, and it luxuriates in saline soils, where it is usually a characteristic. It is widely diffused over all this country. A chenopodiaceous shrub, which is a new species of Obione (O. rigida, Torn and Frem.), was equally characteristic of the lower parts of the island. These two are the striking plants on the island, and belong to a class of plants which form a prominent feature in the vegetation of this country. On the lower parts of the island, also, a prickly pear of very large size was frequent. On the shore, near the water, was a woolly species of Fhaca ; and a new species of umbelliferous plant (Leptotcenia) was scattered about in very considerable abundance. These constituted all the vegetation that now appeared upon the island. I accidentally left on the summit the brass cover to THE ISLAND. 243 the object end of my spy-glass ; and as it will probably remain there undisturbed by Indians, it will furnish matter of speculation to some future traveller. In our excursions about the island we did not meet with any kind of animal ; a magpie, and another larger bird, probably attracted by the smoke of our fire, paid us a visit from the shore, and were the only hving things seen during our stay. The rock constituting the cliffs along the shore where we were encamped is a talcous rock, or steatite, with brown spar. Out of the drift-wood we made ourselves pleasant little lodges, open to the water, and, after having kindled large fires to excite the wonder of any straggling savage on the lake shores, lay down, for the first time in a long journey, in perfect security, no one thinking about his arms. The evening was extremely bright and pleasant ; but the wind rose during the night, and the waves began to break heavily on the shore, making our island tremble. I had not expected in our inland journey to hear the roar of an ocean surf; and the strangeness of our situation, and the excitement we felt in the associated interests of the place, made this one of the most interesting nights I remember during our long expedition. In the morning the surf was breaking heavily on the shore, and we were up early. The lake was dark and agitated, and we hurried through our scanty breakfast, and embarked, having first filled one of the buckets with water from the lake, of which it was intended to make salt. The sun had risen by the time we were ready to start ; and it was blowing a strong gale of wind, almost directly off the shore, and raising a considerable sea, in which our boat strained very much. It roughened as we got away from the island, and it required all the efforts of the men to 244 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. make any head against the wind and sea ; the gale rising with the sun, and there was danger of being blown into one of the open reaches beyond the island. At the dis- tance of half a mile from the beach, the depth of water was sixteen feet, with a clay bottom ; but, as the working of the boat was very severe labor, and during the opera- tion of rounding it was necessary to cease paddling, dur- ing which the boat lost considerable way, I was unwilling to discourage the men, and reluctantly gave up my inten- tion of ascertaining the depth, and the character of the bed. There was a general shout in the boat when we found ourselves in one fathom, and we soon after landed on a low point of mud, immediately under the butte of the peninsula, where we unloaded the boat, and carried the baggage about a quarter of a mile to firmer ground. We arrived just in time for meridian observation, and carried the barometer to the summit of the butte, which is five hundred feet above the lake. Mr. Preuss set oif on foot for the camp, which was about nine miles distant ; Basil accompanying him, to bring back horses for the boat and baggage. The horses arrived late in the afternoon, by which time the gale had increased to such a height that a man could scarcely stand before it : and we were obliged to pack our baggage hastily, as the rising water of the lake had already reached the point where we were halted. Looking back as we rode off, v/e found the place of recent encampment entirely covered. The low plain through which we rode to the camp was covered with a compact growth of shrubs of extraordinary size and luxuriance. The soil was sandy and saline ; flat places, resembling the beds of ponds, that were bare of vegetation, and covered with powdery white salts, being interspersed among the shrubs. Artemisia CAPTAIN MARCY'S EXPEDITION, 245 tridentata was very abundant, but the plants were princi- pally saline ; a large and vigorous chenopodiaceous shrub, five to eight feet high, being characteristic, with Fremontia vermicularis, and a shrubby plant which seems to be a new Salicornia, We reached the camp in time to escape a thunder-storm which blackened the sky, and were re- ceived with a discharge of the howitzer by the people, who, having been unable to see anything of us on the lake, had begun to feel some uneasiness. CAPTAIN MARCY. Blanche opened " Marcy's Exploration of Red River." This was the Upper Red River of Oklahoma. " Is this the gentleman they thought was dead, because he was gone so long ? " Uncle Fritz said it was. One of the school-girls had told Blanche about it. She knew some of General Mar- cy's daughters, who had told her. The children looked at the book eagerly to see the end, and to their great dehght found the account, there, of the return of the expedition : " We found our friends much astonished and delighted at our sudden appearance among them, when they had supposed us all massacred by the Comanches." But this was not the only interesting thing in this short report. The country, then so strange, is now the grazing- place of great herds of cattle. WATER! WATER! Although we were suffering most acutely from the effects of the nauseating and repulsive water in the river, yet we were still under the painful necessity of using it. Several of the men had been taken with violent cramps in the 246 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. Stomach, and vomiting, yet they did not murmur ; on the contrary, they were cheerful, and indulged in frequent jokes at the expense of those who were sick. The prin- cipal topic of conversation with them seemed to be a dis- cussion of the relative merits of the different kinds of fancy iced drinks which could be procured in the cities, and the prices that could be obtained for some of them if they were within reach of our party. Indeed, it seems to me that in the officers* mess we were not entirely exempt from the agitation of a similar subject ; and from the drift of the argument, I have no doubt that a mod- erate quantity of Croton water, cooled with Boston ice, would have met with as ready a sale in our little mess as in almost any market that could have been found. If I mistake not, one of the gentlemen offered as high as two thousand dollars for a single bucket of the pure element ; but this was one of those few instances in which money was not sufficiently potent to obtain the object desired. We laid ourselves down upon our blankets, and endeav- ored to obliterate the sensation of thirst in the embraces of Morpheus ; but, so far as I was concerned, my slum- bers were continually disturbed by dreams, in which I fancied myself swallowing huge draughts of ice-water. THE CAVERN, HEAD OF RED RIVER. July i, 1852. We saddled up at a very early hour this morning, and proceeded on up the river for several miles, when we found a large affluent putting in from the north ; and after travelling a few miles farther, we passed many more small tributaries, which caused the main stream to contract into the narrow channel of only twenty feet j and its bed, which from its confluence with the Mis- SOURCE OF RED RIVER. 247 sissippi to this place (with the exception of a ridge of rocks which crosses it near Jonesborough, in Texas) had been sand, suddenly changed to rock, with the water, which before had been turbid, flowing clear and rapidly over it; and, much to our delight, it was entirely free from salts. This was certainly an unlooked-for luxury, as we had everywhere before this found it exceedingly unpal- atable. As I before observed, the effect of this water upon us had been to produce sickness of the stomach attended with loss of appetite, and a most raging and feverish thirst, which constantly impelled us to drink it, although it had a contrary effect upon us from what we desired, increasing rather than allaying thirst. After undergoing the most intense sufferings from drink- ing this nauseating fluid, we indulged freely in the pure and delicious element as we ascended along the narrow dell through which the stream found its way. And, fol- lowing up for two miles the tortuous course of the gorge, we reached a point where it became so much obstructed with huge piles of rock that we were obliged to leave our animals and clamber up the remainder of the distance on foot. The gigantic escarpments of sandstone, rising to the giddy height of eight hundred feet upon each side, gradu- ally closed in until they were only a few yards apart, and finally united overhead, leaving a long, narrow corridor beneath, at the base of which the head spring of the prin- cipal or main branch of Red River takes its rise. This spring bursts out from its cavernous reservoir, and, leaping down over the huge masses of rock below, here commences its long journey to unite with other tributaries in making the Mississippi the noblest river in the world. Directly at the spring we found three small cotton- 248 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. wood trees, one of which was blazed, and the fact of our having visited the place, with the date, marked upon it. On beholding this minute rivulet as it wends its tor- tuous course down the deep descent of the canon, it is difficult to realize that it forms the germ of one of the largest and most important rivers of America, floating steamers upon its bosom for nearly two thousand miles, and depositing an alluvion along its borders which ren- ders its valley unsurpassed for fertility. We took many copious draughts of the cool and refreshing water in the spring, and thereby considered ourselves, with the pleasure we received from the beau- tiful and majestic scenery around us, amply remuner- ated for all our fatigue and privations. The magnifi- cence of the views that presented themselves exceeded anything I had ever beheld. The stupendous escarpments of solid rock, rising pre- cipitously from the bed of the river to such a height as to exclude the rays of the sun, formed one of the grand- est and most picturesque scenes that can be imagined. BUFFALO CHASE. June 7. Taking two of the Indians this morning, I went out for the purpose of making an examination of the surrounding country, and ascertaining whether good water could be found upon our route for our next en- campment. We had gone about three miles in a west- erly direction, when we struck a fresh buffalo track leading north ; thinking we might overtake him, we fol- lowed up the trace until we came near the summit of an eminence upon the prairie, when I sent one of the A BUFFALO CHASE. 249 Indians (John Bull) to the top of the hill, which was about one fourth of a mile distant, to look for the ani- mal. He had no sooner arrived at the point indicated than we saw him make a signal for us to join him, by riding around rapidly several times in a circle and immediately putting off at full speed over the hills. We set out at the same instant upon a smart gallop, and on reaching the crest of the hill discovered the terrified animal fleeing at a most furious pace, with John Bull in hot pursuit about five hundred yards be- hind him. As we followed on down the prairie, we had a fine view of the chase. The Delaware was mounted upon one of our most fractious and spirited horses, that had never seen a buffalo before, and on coming near the animal he seemed perfectly frantic with fear, mak- ing several desperate surges to the right and left, any one of which must have inevitably unseated his rider, had he not been a most expert and skilful horseman. During the time the horse was plunging and making such efforts to escape, John, while he controlled him with a masterly adroitness, seized an opportunity and gave the buffalo the contents of his rifle, breaking one of his fore-legs, and somewhat retarding his speed j he still kept on, however, making good running, and it required all the strength of our horses to bring us alongside of him. Before we came up our most excel- lent hunter, John Bull, had recharged his rifle and placed another ball directly back of the shoulder j but so tenacious of his life is this animal, that it was not until the other Delaware and myself arrived and gave him four additional shots, that we brought him to the ground. Packing the best pieces of the meat upon our horses, we went on, and in a few miles found a spring- 250 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. brook, in which there was an abundance of good water, where I determined to make our next encampment. On our return we saw a pack of wolves, with a multi- tude of ravens, making merry over the carcass of the buffalo we had killed in the morning. Bob Edmeston had found traces of the Zuni Indians. The children had seen some of their pottery at the Museum. They had some vague notions of Montezuma and the Mexican traditions, and here were Captain Emory's notes of the journey which first "opened up" those people to the whites of the East. A HOUSE OF THE AZTECS. November io [1847]. The valley on the southern side of the Gila still grows wider. Away oif in that direction, the peaks of the Sonora Mountains just peep above the horizon. On the north side of the river, and a few miles from it, runs a low chain of serrated hills. Near our encampment a corresponding range draws in from the southeast, giving the river a bend to the north. At the base of this chain is a long meadow, reaching for many miles south, in which the Pimos graze their cattle ; and along the whole day's march were remains of ze- quias, pottery, and other evidences of a once densely populated country. About the time of the noon halt, a large pile, which seemed the work of human hands, was seen to the left. It was the remains of a three- story mud house, sixty feet square, pierced for doors and windows. The walls were four feet thick, and formed by layers of mud two feet thick. Stanly made an elaborate sketch of every part ; for it was, no doubt, CASA MONTEZUMA. 25I built by the same race that had once so thickly peopled this territory, and left behind the ruins. We made a long and careful search for some speci- mens of household furniture, or implement of art, but nothing was found except the corn-grinder, always met with among the ruins and on the plains. The marine shell, cut into various ornaments, was also found here, which showed that these people either came from the seacoast or trafficked there. No traces of hewn timber were discovered; on the contrary, the sleepers of the ground-floor were round and unhewn. They were burnt out of their seats in the wall to the depth of six inches. The whole interior of the house had been burnt out, and the walls much defaced. What was left bore marks of having been glazed, and on the wall in the north room of the second were traced the following hiero- glyphics. [So says Captain Emory, but these hiero- glyphics were unfortunately lost.] CASA MONTEZUMA. November 13 and 14. With the morning came the Maricopas women, dressed like the Pimos. They are somewhat taller, and one peculiarity struck me forcibly, that while the men had aquiline noses, those of the women were retrousses. Finding the trade in meal had ceased, they collected in squads about the different fires, and made the air ring with their jokes and merry peals of laughter. Mr. Bestor's spectacles were a great source of merriment. Some of them formed the idea that with their aid he could see through their cotton blankets. They would shrink and hide behind each other at his approach. At length I placed the spectacles on the 252 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. nose of an old woman, who became acquainted with their use and explained it to the others. We were notified that a long journey was to be made without finding water (to cut off an elbow in the river), and the demand for gourds was much greater than the supply. One large gourd cost me four strings of glass beads, which was thought a high price. The interpreter who guided us to Casa Montezuma, on the north side of the Gila, said that on the Salt River, about a day's journey and a half, there was one of those buildings standing, complete in all respects except the floors and roof. He said it was very large, with beautiful glazed walls j that the footsteps of the men employed in build- ing the house could yet be seen in the adobe, and that the impression was that of a naked foot. Whenever a rain comes, the Indians resort to these old houses to look for trinkets of shells, and a peculiar green stone which I think is nothing more than verde antique. At twelve o'clock, after giving our horses a last water- ing, we started off in a southwestern direction to turn the southern foot of the range of hills pointing to the Salt River. Five miles brought us into a grove of the Cereus, which had yielded a plentiful supply of fruit to the Indians. Our way was over a plain of granitic sand, ascending gradually and almost imperceptibly. After leaving the Cereus, there was no growth except the Larrea Mexicana, and occasionally, at long intervals, an acacia or inga. We travelled till long after dark, and dropped down in a dust-hole near two large green-barked acacias. There was not a sprig of grass or a drop of water, and during the whole night the mules kept up a piteous cry for both. A MOCK CAPITOL. 253 There was nothing but the offensive Larrea, which even mules will not touch when so hungry as to eat with avidity the dry twigs of all other shrubs and trees. As soon as the moon rose, at three a. m., the bugle sounded to horse, and we were up and pursuing our way. A little after sunrise we had passed the summit and were descending towards the Gila. This summit was formed by a range of granite hills running south- east, and standing in pinnacles. As the sun mounted, the mirage, only seen once be- fore since leaving the plains of Arkansas, now began to distort the distant mountains, which everywhere bounded the horizon, into many fantastic shapes. The morning was sharp and bracing, and I was excessively hungry, having given my breakfast, consisting of two biscuits, to my still more hungry mule. I was describing to Mr. Warner how much more pleasant it would be to be jogging into Washington after a fox-hunt, with the prospect of a hot breakfast, when up rose to our aston- ished view, on the north side of the Gila, a perfect rep- resentation of the Capitol, with dome, wings, and portico all complete. It remained for full twenty minutes with its proportions and outline perfect, when it dwindled down into a distant butte. We went on briskly to the Gila, whose course, marked by the green cottonwood, could be easily traced. It looked much nearer than it really was. We reached it after making forty miles from our camp of yesterday. Our poor brutes were so hungry they would drink no water, but fell to work on the young willows and cane. After letting them bite a few minutes, we moved down the river five miles farther, to a large and luxuriant patch of paspalum grass, shaded by the acacia and prosopis. 254 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. WRITINGS ON STONE. November i6. The valley on the south side contin- ues wide, and shows continuously the marks of former cultivation. On the north side the hills run close to the river. After making ten miles we came to a dry creek, coming from a plain reaching far to the south, and then we mounted the table-lands to avoid a bend in the river, made by a low chain of black hills coming in from the southeast. The table-land was strewed with fragments of black basalt, interspersed with agate, chalcedony, vitrified quartz, and carbonate of lime. About the summit was a mound of granite boulders, blackened by angite, and covered with unknown char- acters, the work of human hands. These have been copied. On the ground near by were also traces of some of the figures, showing some of the hieroglyphics, at least, to have been the work of modern Indians. Others were of undoubted antiquity, and the signs and symbols intended, doubtless, to commemorate some great event. One stone bore on it what might be taken, with a little stretch of the imagination, to be a mastodon, a horse, a dog, and a man. Their heads are turned to the east, and this may commemorate the passage of the aborigines of the Gila on their way south. Many of the modern symbols are in imitation of the antique, and, doubtless, the medicine men of the pres- ent day resort to this mound to invoke their unseen spirits, and work the miracles which enable them to hold their sway amongst their credulous race. There are many more weird and mysterious-looking places A FALSE ALARM. 255 than this to be found along the banks of the Gila, and the first attraction to the modern Indian was, without doubt, the strange characters he saw described. Some of the boulders appear to have been written and rewritten upon so often that it was impossible to get a distinct outline of any of the characters. A FALSE ALARM. November 22. Mr. Warner and I started before the advance sounded, and climbed the sharp spur of a con- tinuous comb of mountains, coming from the southeast, to try if we could see the Colorado of the west. The mountains rose abruptly from the plains, as they mostly do in this region, resembling in appearance large dykes terminating at top in a sharp ridge which a man could, at any part, straddle. They were of hard granite, pep- per-and-salt colored, traversed by seams of white quartz. This spur gives the river Gila quite a bend to the north, and from that point to its mouth, which we reached at night, the river is straight in its general direction ; but its course is crooked and dotted with sand-bars, by in- cursions from the sand-hills which now flank both its sides. The sand is brought down by the winds from the valley of the Colorado. Its volume seemed, I think, a little diminished, probably absorbed by the sand. The day was warm, the dust oppressive, and the march, twenty-two miles, very long for our jaded and ill-fed brutes. The general's horse gave out, and he was obliged to mount his mule. Most of the men were on foot, and a small party, composed chiefly of the general and staff, were a long way ahead of the straggling column, when, as we ap- 2S6 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, proached the end of our day's journey, every man was straightened in his saddle by our suddenly falling on a camp which, from the trail, we estimated at one thou- sand men, who must have left that morning. Specula- tion was rife, but we all soon settled down to the opinion that it was General Castro and his troops ; that he had succeeded in recruiting an army in Sonora, and was now on his return to California. Carson expressed the belief that he must be only ten miles below, at the crossing. Our force consisted of only one hundred and ten men. The general decided we were too few to be attacked, and must be the aggressive party; and if Castro's camp could be found, that he would attack it the moment night set in, and beat them before it was light enough to discover our force. The position of our camp was decided, as usual, with reference to the grass. The lives of our animals were nearly as important as our own. It was pitched to-day in a little hollow encircled by a chain of sand-hills over- grown with mezquite. The sergeant of the general's guard was behind, his mule having broken down ; and when he came in reported having seen two Indians about five miles back. For a short time we supposed this immense trail was a band of Indians returning from a successful marauding expedition in Sonora or California ; but this conjecture was soon dispelled by the appearance of a mounted Mexican on a sand-butte overlooking our camp, who, after taking a deliberate survey, disappeared. The camp was arranged imme- diately for defence, and a cordon of sentinels stationed on the sand-hills. The two howitzers did not arrive till nine o'clock ; and the officer in charge. Lieutenant Hammond, reported he had seen large fires to the FIVE HUNDREJD HORSES. 257 right, apparently five miles distant, on the opposite side of the Gila. The general said it was necessary for him to know who occupied the camp, its force, character, and desti- nation. He ordered me to take my party and fifteen dragoons, for the purpose of reconnoitring. After beat- ing about in the mezquite for some time, we struck a slough of the Gila, where grew some tall willows. Up one of these I sent a dragoon, who saw no fire, but whose ears were gladdened by the neighing of horses. He slipped down the tree much faster than he climbed it, quite enchanted with the hope of exchanging his weary mule for a charger. Instead of reporting what he had seen, he exclaimed, " Yes, sir, there are enough for us all." — '' Did you see the fibres ? " — " No ! but they are all on horses ; I heard them neighing, and they cover much ground." He pointed in the direction, and after proceeding a short distance, we all heard distinctly the noise of the horses, indicating a large number. Silence was enjoined, and we proceeded stealthily along for some time, when a bright fire blazed before us. I halted the guard, and with two dragoons, Lon- deau and Martinez, proceeded unobserved until within a few feet of the fire. Before it stood an armed Mexi- can. I sent Londeau and Martinez widi orders to assume the occupation of trappers, and ascertain whom and what the man guarded. The conference was short; other Mexicans advanced, and I sent in man for man. It was not Castro, as we expected, but a party of Mexi- cans, with five hundred horses, from California, on their way to Sonora for the benefit of Castro. I took the four principal men to the general, and left 17 258 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, a guard to watch the camp and see that no attempt was made to escape. The men were examined separately, and each gave a different account of the ownership and destination of the horses. The chief of the party, a tall, venerable-looking man, represented himself to be a poor employe of several rich men engaged in supplying the Sonora market with horses. We subsequently learned that he was no less a personage than Jose Maria Leguna, a colonel in the Mexican service. WILD HORSES. The captured horses were all wild, and but little adapted for immediate service; but there was rare sport in catching them, and we saw for the first time the lazo thrown with inimitable skill. It is a saying in Chihuahua that " a Californian can throw the lazo as well with his foot as a Mexican can with his hand," and the scene before us gave us an idea of its truth. There was a wild stallion of great beauty, which defied the fleetest horse and the most expert rider. At length a boy of fourteen, a Californian, whose graceful riding was the constant subject of admiration, piqued by re- peated failures, mounted a fresh horse, and, followed by an Indian, launched fiercely at the stallion. His lariat darted from his hand with the force and precision of a rifle-ball, and rested on the neck of the fugitive ; the Indian at the same moment made a suc- cessful throw, but the stallion was too stout for both, and dashed off at full speed with both ropes flying in the air like wings. The perfect representation of Pegasus, he took a sweep, and, followed by his pursuers, THE LAZO, 259 came thundering down the dry bed of the river. The lazos were now trailing on the ground, and the gallant young Spaniard, taking advantage of the circumstance, stooped from his flying horse and caught one in his hand. It was the work of a moment to make it fast to the pommel of his saddle, and by a short turn of his own horse he threw the stallion a complete somerset, and the game was secure. 26o STORIES OF DISCOVERY. XI. THE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT? THERE is an old globe at Colonel Ingham's, made by Josiah Loring of Boston in 1832, and some of the children were turning it round and studying it, as the Colonel encouraged them to do, when Bedford cried out : " Why, Uncle, there is no Antarctic Continent here ! " "Nor anywhere else!'' said Will Withers, incredu- lously. Colonel Ingham laughed. "You must not say that to them." There is a barrel full of pieces of the Antarc- tic Continent in the Museum at Washington. Some of the young people had seen them there, and said so. "Bat what does Will mean ?" said Bedford. ''The Antarctic Continent is on my map at school ; that is, the northern and eastern sides of it are, and they are painted with as bright blue as any continent." Now it happened that the young people had just read the account of the return of the last great southern explor- ing expedition. These people also had called the land which was nearest to the South Pole by the convenient name of the Antarctic Continent. Of course no one knows whether it is a Continent or not unless there be some good telescopes on the planet Mars. Colonel Ingham said that in one or two afternoons they could read almost all that is really known about those present regions. THE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT 26 1 " Really known ! '' said Will Withers scornfully, " I should think so ! '' " If you say ^really known,' Uncle Fritz, you will not let us read Peter Wilkins's account. I think it ought to be called Wilkins's Land." *'It says here, * Wilkes's Land,"' said EmmaFortinbras. ^* O Emma, you are so matter-of-fact ! Now in Peter Wilkins it says that he landed on this great continent, w^hich was needed to balance North America, and then he had to fly away." The Colonel said he was afraid they must leave out Peter Wilkins, unless Little & Brown would print for them " Imaginary Voyages, told by the Imaginers." "Then we would count in Gulliver," said he, "for you remember he lighted on one of these balancing continents which seemed to be so necessary to keep the counterpoise of our heavy northern regions." " Uncle Fritz, did Lemuel Gulliver live in Milton ? When we played the Milton eleven, one of their boys said he did." "The boy was wrong," said Uncle Fritz. "It was Jonathan Gulliver who lived in Milton, and about whom Alexander Pope wrote the letter to Jonathan Swift. I do not think we had any Lemuel Gulliver. But Jonathan Gulliver was in the Massachusetts General Court about the time when Lemuel Gulliver was at Brobdignag, I believe. All this, however, as Will would say, if he dared, does not belong to the dignity of history. Still, undoubtedly all these allusions to an Antarctic Con- tinent, like those you have cited in Gulliver's Travels and in Peter Wilkins, had a good deal to do in starting the various expeditions that way. It was an important part, as you saw in one of Cook's Voyages." 262 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. Then Colonel Ingham showed them, on a new French globe, the most southern point which Cook attained, and which Captain Furneaux, his consort, attained. "But they did not stumble on any land. As late as the year 1836 Murray's Geography summed up the whole discov- ery of land up to that time, in this passage, which you may read, Fanchon.'* Fanchon read : — THE ANTARCTIC ARCHIPELAGO. The islands of the Southern Polar Sea, to which Mon- sieur Balbi gives the somewhat too pompous title of Antarctic Archipelago, extend chiefly southeast from the extremity of the American Continent. They pre- sent the same general character as the Arctic lands, with some variations. . . . New South Shetland, with the smaller adjoining group of the New Orkneys, being situated in 61° and 63° S. latitude, are scarcely nearer the Pole than the British Islands after which they are named, yet their climate is that of Greenland and Spitzbergen ; islands of ice are tossing through the seas, and the land is peopled only by those animal forms peculiar to the Antarctic Circle. These, however, since the discovery, by Captain Smith, of Blyth, in 18 18, have attracted numerous adventurers who have carried off great quantities of oil and seal- skins, but by their improvident pursuit have greatly thinned the supply. There are twelve considerable isles, of which the principal are named Barrow, King George, and Livingstone, with innumerable rocky islets. The land is moderately high, one peak rising to 2,500 feet, while elsewhere there is a volcanic cone which only rises DESOLA TION ISLAND. 263 to 80 feet. Deception Isle contains a very fine harbor. The New Orkneys consist of a large island called Po- mona, or Mainland, and of many smaller ones. Farther to the east are a number of small islands, which, being at first supposed to form a continuous coast, were named Sandwich Land. Again, to the south of New Shetland, in about lat. 64°, a Russian captain, Bellinghausen, lately observed a range of coast, which he named Trinity Land, but which may probably be found to consist also of a cluster of islands. Two Russian frigates also, in 1829, penetrated to 69° S. lat, where they found two islets at some distance from each other, which they named Peter I. and Alexander I., and which form the most southerly spots of land yet known to exist. Among Antarctic islands we must also reckon Ker- guelen's, or Desolation, situated far to the east of those now described, in long. 70 E., and the moderate latitude of 50^. It resembles exactly New Georgia and South Shetland. Captain Cook's party, who carefully examined it, were astonished at its scanty flora, amounting only to sixteen species, mostly mosses and lichens; but they were struck by the multitude of amphibious animals with which its shores were peopled. This has lately attracted the attention of the adventurers in the southern fishery, who, according to Captain Weddell, have recently drawn from it supplies nearly as large as from New Georgia. We may finally mention the solitary islet of Tristan d'Acunha, situated to the west of the Cape of Good Hope, in the low latitude of 38°. By the picturesque description of Mr. Earle, who was driven thither by shipwreck, it appears indeed to contain rich pastures, on which European cattle thrive ; yet the bleak storms of a long winter, and its shores crowded with the sea elephant, 264 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. the penguin, and the albatross, mark its affinity to the Antarctic regions now described. A settlement formed there by the English has been abandoned ; yet a very few individuals are still induced to reside on it by the facility of sustenance. In 183 1, Captain Biscoe fell in with land, in 66° S. lat. and 47° E. long., to which he gave the name of Enderby's Land, and which he conceives to be of con- siderable extent. In the following year he touched upon another coast of uncertain extent, in about the same latitude, and in long. 70° W. To this latter tract has been given the name of Graham's Land. " You will see," said Uncle Fritz, " that Cook almost struck Enderby's Land, which is not far east of the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope. Here, to the south of South America, is Palmer's Land and the little islands Peter and Alexander, if islands they be. In the winter of 1839-40, our Captain Wilkes, whose name you found, Emma, after his explorations in the Pacific, made a dash with his squadron to the south of New Holland. He was rewarded by frequent sight of the ice-bound shores of what we call the Antarctic Continent. He sailed along this coast for nearly sixty degrees of longi- tude, keeping very near the Antarctic Circle all the way. Once and again he sent his boats to icebergs which had earth and rocks upon them. These are the specimens of the Antarctic Continent which you have seen at Washington. But he found no place where they could land on the continent itself. "Wilkes reports that he regards his discovery as made on the 1 6th of January, 1840. On the afternoon of the 19th of January, 1840, Dumont d'Urville, the com- COAST OF ADELIE, 26$ mander of a French expedition, made the land near the meridian of 130°. Wilkes afterward passed the same place. D'Urville called it the coast of ' Adelie/ out of compliment to his wife. The next winter Captain James Ross and Captain Crozier, in the 'Erebus' and 'Terror,' the same ships which were afterwards lost with Franklin, made a dash south from the Auckland Islands on or near the meridian of 170°. He found no ice-pack where Wilkes and D'Urville had struck it the year before, and was able to make the high southern latitude of 78^ 4', on the 23d of January. He had discovered land on the nth of January, in latitude 70° 41', and longitude 172° 39'. During the period between he had coasted the eastern face of this land and had observed a mag- nificent volcano, which he named Mount Erebus, while to a lesser, extinct crater, he gave the name of his other ship, and called it Mount Terror. " These three expeditions discovered and reported all that is known of the Antarctic Continent. It is said of it, — as you have said, Will, — that no living plant, even a plate of lichen, has been found which grew on these dismal shores. D'Urville caught some penguins at Adelie. Our Mr. Eld caught one with thirty-two stones in his craw. " You will not find it hard to read in Captain Wilkes's narrative all that he tells of the land itself. Ross made a landing on a small island, and ' took pos- session' in the name of Queen Victoria. But, like Wilkes and D'Urville, he was unable to find any place where he could land upon the continent." 266 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. APPEARANCES OF LAND.i On this day [i6th of January] appearances be- lieved at the time to be land were visible from all the three vessels, and the comparison of the three obser- vations when taken in connection with the more posi- tive proof of its existence, afterwards obtained, has left no doubt that the appearance was not deceptive. From this day, therefore, we date the discovery which is claimed for the squadron. On board the " Peacock " it appears that Passed Mid- shipmen Eld and Reynolds both saw the land from the mast-head, and reported it to Captain Hudson ; he was well satisfied, on examination, that the appearance w^as totally distinct from that of ice islands, and a ma- jority of the officers and men were also satisfied that if land could exist that was it. On board the "Porpoise" Lieutenant Commandant Ringold states that " he went aloft in the afternoon, the weather being clear and fine, the horizon good, and clouds lofty j that he saw over the field-ice an object, large, dark, rounding, resembling a mountain in the distance ; the icebergs were all light and brilliant, and in great contrast.'' He goes on to say in his report : " I watched for an hour to see if the sun in his decline would change the color of the object ; it remained the same, with a white cloud above, similar to that hovering over high land. At sunset the appearance remained the same. I took the bearings accuratel}^, intending to examine it closely as soon as we got a breeze. I am 1 From Wilkes's Narrative. DISTANT MOUNTAINS. 26/ thoroughly of opinion that it is an island surrounded by immense fields of ice." In Passed Midshipman Eld's journal he says that he had been several times to the mast-head during the day, to view the barrier ; that it was not only a barrier of ice, but one of terra firma. Passed Midship- man Reynolds and himself exclaimed, with one accord, that it was land. Not trusting to the naked eye, they descended for spy-glasses, which confirmed beyond a doubt their first impressions. The mountains could be distinctly seen, over the field-ice and bergs, stretching to the southwest as far as anything could be discovered. Two peaks in particular were very distinct (which I have named after these two officers), rising in a coni- cal form ; and others, the lower parts of which were quite as distinct, but whose summits were lost in light fleecy clouds. The sun shone brightly upon ridge after ridge whose-sides were partially bare. These connected the eminences I have just spoken of, which must be from one to two thousand feet high. Mr. Eld further states that on reporting the discovery to Captain Hud- son, the latter replied that there was no doubt of it ; and that he believed that most of the icebergs then in sight were aground. . . . January i8. The weather this day was variable, with light westerly winds ; the temperature of air and water 32°. Occasional squalls of snow and mist oc- curred, but it was at times clear. The water was still olive-green ; and the other vessels occasionally in sight, beating to windward. On the morning of the 19th we found ourselves in a deep bay, and discovered the '* Peacock " standing to the southwest. Until eight o'clock a. m. we had a 268 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. moderate breeze. The water was of a darker olive- green, and had a muddy appearance. Land was now certainly visible from the " Vincennes," both to the south- southeast and southwest, in the former direction most distinctly. Both appeared high. It was between eight and nine in the morning when I was fully satisfied that it was certainly land, and my own opinion was confirmed by that of some of the oldest and most experienced sea- men on board. The officer of the morning watch, Lieu- tenant Alden, sent twice and called my attention to it. We were at this time in longitude 154° 30' E., latitude 66° 20' S. ; the day was fine, and at times quite clear, with light winds. After divine service I still saw the out- line of the land, unchanged in form but not so distinct as in the morning. By noon I found we were sagging on to the barrier ; the boats were lowered in conse- quence, and the ship towed off. The report from aloft was, "A continued barrier of ice around the bay, and no opening to be seen, having the western point of it bearing to the northward of west of us." I stood ^o the westward to pass around it, fully assured that the " Peacock '' would explore all the outline of the bay. The "Peacock," at 3 h. 30m., according to Captain Hudson's journal, having got into the drift-ice, with a barrier still ahead to the west, tacked to the southeast to work up for an immense mass, which had every ap- pearance of land, and which was believed to be such by all on board. It was seen far beyond and towering above an ice-island that was from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in height. It bore from them about southwest,^ and had the appearance of being three thou- 1 Sketches of this land will be seen in Wilkes's atlas on the chart of Ant- arctic Continent. BLOCKED BY ICEBERGS. 269 sand feet in height, forming a sort of amphitheatre, look- ing gray and dark, and divided into two distinct ridges or elevations throughout its entire extent, the whole being covered with snow. As there was no probability of getting nearer to it in this quarter, they stood out of the bay, which was about twenty miles deep, to proceed to the westward, hoping to get an opportunity to ap- proach the object more closely on the other side. A MOUNTAIN RANGE. On the morning of the 30th of January the sun rose in great brilliancy, and the scene could hardly be real- ized as the same as that we had passed through only twenty-four hours before. All was now quiet ; a brisk breeze blew from the eastward, all sail was set, and there was every prospect that we might accomplish our object ; for the land was in sight, and the icebergs seemed floating in quiet. We wound our way through them in a sea so smooth that a yawl might have passed over it in safety. No straight line could have been drawn from us, in any direction, that would not have cut a dozen icebergs in the same number of miles ; and the wondering exclamations of the officers and crew were oft repeated, — '^ How could we have passed through them unharmed ? '' and ''' What a lucky ship ! " At eight o'clock we had reached the icy barrier, and hove to close to it. It was tantalizing, with the land in sight, to be again and again blocked out. Open water was seen near the land to the southwest of us, and a tortuous channel through the broken ice to leeward, apparently leading to it. All sail was immediately crowded; we passed rapidly through, and found our- 270 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, selves again in clear water, which reached to the shores, the barrier extending in a line with our course about two miles to windward, and a clear channel to the northwest, about ten miles wide, as far as the eye could reach. Seeing this, I remarked to one of the officers that it would have been a good place to drift in during the last gale, Uttle thinking that in a few short hours it would serve us for that purpose, in still greater need. A brisk gale ensued, and the ship ran at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour; one reef was taken in the topsails, and we stood directly in for the most southerly part of the bay. This bay was formed partly by ice islands. The latter were aground, and on the western side of the bay extended about five miles to the northward of our position. While we stood on in this direction the gale in- creased, and our room became so circumscribed that we had not time on any one tack to reduce our can- vas, before it became necessary to go about. In this way we approached within half a mile of the dark volcanic rocks which appeared on both sides of us, and saw the land gradually rising beyond the ice to the height of three thousand feet, and entirely covered with snow. It could be distinctly seen extending to the east and west of our position fully sixty miles. I make this bay in longitude 140° 2' 30'' E., latitude 66° 45' S. ; and, now that ali were convinced of its ex- istence, I gave the land the name of the Antarctic Con- tinent. Some of the officers pointed out the appearance of smoke, as if from a volcano, but I was of opinion that this was nothing but the snow-drift, caused by the heavy squalls. There was too much wind at this time FINER* S BAY, 27 1 to tack ; I therefore had recourse to luffing the vessel up in the wind, and wore her short round on her heel. At the same time we sounded, and found a hard bottom at the depth of no more than thirty fathoms. I made a rough sketch of this bay, which I have called Piner's Bay, after the signal quartermaster of that name. It was impossible to lower a boat or to remain longer ; indeed, I felt it imperative on me to clear its confined space before the floating ice might close it up. ICY CLIFFS. The weather now moderated, and I ordered sail to be made. The 2d of February found us about sixty miles to the westward of Finer' s Bay, steering to the south- ward, and as usual among ice islands with the land in sight. The land had the same lofty appearance as be- fore. We stood in until three p. m., when we were within two and a half miles of the icy cliffs by which the land was bounded on all sides. These were from one hun- dred and fifty to two hundred feet in height, quite per- pendicular, and there was no appearance whatever of rocks ; all was covered with ice and snow. A short distance from us to the westward was a long range of icebergs aground, which, contrary to the usual ap- pearance, looked much weather-beaten. We tried for soundings, but did not get any with one hundred and fifty fathoms, although the water was much discolored. The badness of the deep sea-line was a great annoy- ance to us, for deeper soundings would probably have obtained bottom. No break in the icy barrier, where a foot could be set on the rocks, was observable from aloft. The land still trended to the westward as far as 2^2 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, the eye could reach, and continued to exhibit the same character as before. Our longitude now was 137° 2' E., latitude 66^ 12' S. ; we found magnetic declination westerly. CAPE CARR. On the 7th of February we had much better weather, and continued all day running along the perpendicular icy barrier, about one hundred and fifty feet in height. Beyond it the outline of the high land could be well distinguished. At six p. m. we suddenly found the bar- rier trending to the southward, and the sea studded with icebergs. I now hauled off until daylight, in order to ascertain the trending of the land more exactly. I place this point, which I have named Cape Carr, after the first lieutenant of the "Vincennes/* in longitude 131° 40' E., and latitude 64° 49' S. On the 8th, at daylight, we again made sail to the southward, and found at four a. m. the field of ice had stopped our progress, and the weather was thick. Land was no longer seen to the south, a deep bay apparently making in. We continued our course to the westward along the barrier, until eight p. m., when we were again brought to. At seven p. m. we had strong indications of land j the barrier was of the former perpendicular form, and later the outline of the continent appeared distinct though distant. The night was dark and un- pleasant. At noon our longitude was 127° 7' E., and latitude 65^ 3' S. ; variation 14° 30' westerly. A SIGHT OF LAND. 273 A LANDING EFFECTED. During the 12th of February we had pleasant weather, and at two a. m. filled away. At eight a. m. land was reported to the southwest. Keeping along the barrier and increasing our latitude, I again had hopes of get- ting near the land. We passed through great quan- tities of large floe-ice until one p. m., when the solid barrier prevented our further progress. Land was now distinctly seen, from eighteen to twenty miles distant, bearing from southeast to southwest, — a lofty mountain range, covered with snow, though showing many ridges and indentations. I laid the ship to for three hours, in hopes of discovering some opening or movement in the ice, but none was experienced. I tried the current, but found none. The water was of a dirty dark green. We sounded with the wire-line in two hundred and fifty fathoms, and found no bottom. The temperature at that depth was 3o|-°, of the air 31°. The barrier had in places the appearance of being broken up, and we had decreased our longitude to 112° 16' 12'' E., while our latitude was 64° 67' S. This puts the land in about 65^ 20' S., and its trending nearly east and west. The line of the icy barrier was generally uniform, although it was occasionally pierced by deep bays. We saw some icebergs with decided spots of earth on them, which gave me hopes of yet obtaining the objects of my wishes. The water was remarkably smooth during this day, and the weather clear, enabling us to see a great distance. Two hours after we bore away we left the floe-ice, and entered a clear sea to the westward, where we lost sight of the barrier for a time ; but in 18 274 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. hauling up to the southwest, it was, by eight p. m., within three miles of us, when we again kept off, paral- lel to its trending. The appearance of land still con- tinued. Shortly after, I hove to, for the purpose of awaiting the daylight to continue our observations of the land, with little prospect or probability of reaching it, from the immense quantity of ice which continued to form an impenetrable barrier. 13th. At two A. M. we made sail to the southwest, in order to close with the barrier, which we found re- treated in that direction, and gave us every prospect of getting nearer to it. Our course, for the most part, was through icebergs of tabular form. In the afternoon we had the land ahead, and stood in for it with a light breeze until 6| p. m., when I judged it to be ten or twelve miles distant. It was very distinct, and ex- tended from west-southwest to south-southeast. We were now in longitude 106° 40' E., and latitude 65° 57' S. j the variation was 54° 30' westerly. The water was very green. We sounded in three hundred fathoms, and found no bottom. The weather having an unsettled ap- pearance, we stood off to seek a clearer space for the night. The land left was high, rounded, and covered with snow, resembling that first discovered, and had the appearance of being bound by perpendicular icy cliffs. 14th. At daylight we again made sail for land, beating in for it until eleven a. m., when we found any further progress quite impossible. I then judged that it was seven or eight miles distant. The day was remarkably clear, and the land very distinct. By measurement, we made the extent of the coast of the Antarctic Continent, which was then in sight, seventy-five miles, and, by ap- proximate measurement, three thousand feet high. It SPECIMENS OF ROCKS, 275 was entirely covered with snow. Longitude at noon, 106° 18' 42'' K, latitude 65° 59' 40'' S., variation 57° 5' westerly. On running in, we had passed several ice- bergs greatly discolored with earth, and finding we could not approach the shore any nearer, I deter- mined to land on the largest ice island that seemed accessible, to make dip, intensity, and variation obser- vations. On coming up with it, about one and a half miles from where the barrier had stopped us, I hove the ship to, lowered the boats, and fortunately effected a landing. We found embedded in it, in places, bould- ers, stones, gravel, sand, mud, or clay. The larger specimens were of red sandstone and basalt. No signs of stratification were to be seen in it, but it was in places formed of icy conglomerate (if I may use the expression), composed of large pieces of rocks, as it were frozen together, and the ice was extremely hard and flint-like. The largest boulder embedded in it was about five or six feet in diameter, but, being situated under the shelf of the iceberg, we were not able to get at it. Many specimens were obtained, and it was amusing to see the eagerness and desire of all hands to possess themselves of a piece of the Antarctic Con- tinent. These pieces were in great demand during the remainder of the cruise. In the centre of this iceberg was found a pond of most delicious water, over which was a scum of ice about ten inches thick. We obtained from it about five hundred gallons. We remained upon this iceberg several hours, and the men amused them- selves to their hearts* content in sliding. The pond was three feet deep, extending over an area of an acre, and contained sufiicient water for half a dozen ships. The temperature of the water was 31°. This island had been 2/6 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. undoubtedly turned partly over, and had precisely the same appearance that the icy barrier would have ex- hibited if it had been turned bottom up and subsequently much worn by storms. There was no doubt that it had been detached from the land, which was about eight miles distant. Around the iceberg we found many species of zoo- phytes, namely, salpee, a beautiful specimen of clio helicina, some large pelagic, and many small Crustacea. This day, notwithstanding our disappointment in being still repelled from treading on the new continent, was spent with much gratification, and gave us many new specimens from it. A DEEP BAY. On the xyth, about ten a. m., we discovered the barrier extending in a line ahead, and running north and south as far as the eye could reach. Appearances of land were also seen to the southwest, and its trending seemed to be to the northward. We were thus cut off from any further progress to the westward, and obliged to retrace our steps. The position of the ice disappointed me, although it concurred with what was reasonably to be expected. We were now in longitude 97*^ 37' E., and latitude 64^ i' S. ; our variation was 56° 21' westerly, being again on the decrease. To-day we had several snow-squalls, which, instead of being in flakes, was in small grains, as round as shot, and of various sizes, from that of mustard-seed to buckshot. It was re- markably dry, pure white, and not at all like hail. We found the bay we had entered was fifty or sixty miles in depth ; and, having run in on its southern side, I THE ''PORPOISE'S'' SPECIMENS. 2// determined to run along its northern shore, which we set about with much anxiety, as the weather began to change for the worse. Our situation was by no means such as I should have chosen to encounter bad weather in, the bay being sprinkled with a great many large ice- bergs. Here we met with a large number of whales, whose curiosity seemed awakened by our presence. Their proximity, however^ was anything but pleasant to us, and their blowings resembled that of a number of locomotives. Their close approach was a convinc- ing proof that they had never been exposed to the pur- suit of their skilful hunters. They were of the fin-back species, and of extraordinary size. MORE PIECES OF LAND. During the morning of February 12th the ** Porpoise '* was running along fields of ice, with a breeze from the southward ; weather overcast ; discovered a large piece of ice of a dark brown color floating by, resembling a piece of dead coral ; lay to, and sent a boat to bring it alongside ; obtained from it several pieces of granite and red clay, which were frozen in; the ice was extremely hard and compact, composed of alternate layers of ice and snow; the strata of snow were filled with sand. The icebergs near at the time presented signs of having been detached from land, being discolored by sand and mud. A number of white procellaria were obtained. The ice islands again appeared in great numbers. At three p, m. hauled up, steering westerly into a very deep inlet or gulf, formed by extensive fields of ice. Be- lieving, from the indications of the morning, that land could not be far off, in approaching the head of this 278 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. inlet, several icebergs had the appearance of being in contact with the land, having assumed a dark color from the clay and sand blown upon them ; the whole group around seemed as if in the vicinage of land ; sounded with two hundred fathoms; no bottom; also tried the current, but found none. Towards night, it becoming thick with snow, they continued under snug sail, in- tending to examine more closely the barrier and inlets in the morning. After reading these passages from Commodore Wilkes, the children listened to D'Urville's narrative of ^' Adelie," Marian translating at sight quite successfully. D'URVILLE'S DISCOVERY. ''We had often been greatly misled by deceptive appearances of land, so that we had become generally very doubtful and a little incredulous on this point. Nevertheless, in the evening (of the 19th) a long dark line, low, uniform, and trending from the south to the west-southwest, called and fixed my attention by its permanence, as well as the constancy of its color and its form. It remained when the sun set, during his absence, and at his rising. At length I was convinced that the land was before me, and it became more evi- dent as we approached. I held my conviction the more, that a number of persons did not partake in it. [He was right in his conviction, as Captain Wilkes proved, in passing the same coast.] " Unhappily, the 20th, which gratified us with a sky remarkably clear and beautiful for these climates, did not bring to us a breath of wind. We remained fixed in one place, experiencing the punishment of Tantalus, AMONG ICEBERGS. 2/9 in the sight of that land which excited our lively curi- osity. . . . "The 2 1 St, at one in the morning, I took advantage of a pleasant little breeze from the southeast, to sail to the south-southwest towards the land. To attain it, we had to pass for some distance through an immense chain of enormous flat icebergs, I sought for the most open and least dangerous channel, and from two to six o'clock our corvettes passed quietly along in these sin- gular straits. Sometimes the channels were not more than two or three cable-lengths in breadth, and then our vessels appeared buried under these glittering walls of a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet in height, whose enormous mass seemed ready to annihilate us. Then, the channel suddenly opening, we would pass at once into the largest basins, surrounded by icebergs of singu- lar and fantastic forms, which presented the most won- derful appearance, and involuntarily recalled the palaces of crystal and diamonds so common in fairy tales. "A clear sky, a pleasant day, a delightful breeze, favored us wonderfully in this bold navigation. At length we left these winding and narrow channels, — the high sides of which had for a long time deprived us of our view of the land, — and found ourselves in a place comparatively free, whence we could examine the coast in all its visible extent. Distant about eight or ten miles, there was a long line of land extending as far as the eye could reach from south-southeast to west- southwest, two or three hundred toises high, entirely covered with ice or snow, which rendered the summit completely level, though the ravines on the sides re- mained uncovered, like the capes on the shore." Good observations at noon gave the situation of the 28o STORIES OF DISCOVERY. vessels as 66^ 30' south latitude, and 139'' 41' east longitude from Greenwich. Hoping to come nearer the south magnetic pole, they attempted to find it by going farther west. At this point, after some search, they obtained some specimens of granite which were left uncovered by the snow and ice. Here it was also that they caught some penguins, and Monsieur Dumou- tier found some fragments of a sea-weed thrown up on the rocks. These were the only " living things " they found. The land was named " Adelie." " The name is destined to perpetuate the memory of my profound attachment to the devoted companion who has thrice consented to a long and painful separation, to permit me to accomplish my plans of distant discovery." These voyages were in 1840. Captain Ross made his successful push in 1841. CAPTAIN JAMES ROSS'S NARRATIVE. Under all circumstances, it appeared to me that it would conduce more to the advancement of science, for which this expedition has been more specially set forth, as well as for the extension of our geographical knowl- edge of the Antarctic regions, to endeavor to penetrate to the southward, or about the 170th degree of east longitude, by which the isodynamic oval ^ and the point exactly between the two foci ^ of greater magnetic inten- sity might be passed over and determined, and directly between the tracks of the Russian navigator, Bellings- 1 These phrases refer to the magnetic observations, in which Captain Ross had taken great interest. He had approached, more nearly than any man, the northern magnetic pole, " perhaps within a mile of it " ; as near as instruments would show the place. ENTER THE ANTARCTIC CIRCLE. 28 1 hausen, and our own Captain James Cook ; and after entering the Antarctic Circle, to steer southwesterly towards the pole, rather than attempt to approach it directly from the north in the unsuccessful footsteps of my predecessor. Accordingly, on leaving Auckland Islands, on the 1 2 th of December, we proceeded to the southward, touching for a few days at Campbell Island, for mag- netic purposes ; and after passing amongst many ice- bergs to the southward of 63° S. latitude, we made the pack-edge, and entered the Antarctic Circle on the ist of January, 1841. This pack presented none of those formidable char- acters which I had been led to expect from the accounts of the American and French ; but the circumstances were sufficiently unfavorable to deter me from entering it at this time, and a gale from the northward inter- rupted our operations for three or four days. On the 5th of January we again made the pack about one hundred miles to eastward in latitude 66° 45' S., and longitude 174° 16' E. ; and although the wind was blowing directly on it, with a high sea running, we succeeded in entering it without either of the ships sus- taining any injury ; and after penetrating a few miles we were enabled to make our way to the southward with comparative ease and safety. On the following three or four days our progress was rendered more difficult and tedious by thick fogs, light winds, a heavy swell, and almost constant snow- showers ; but a strong water-sky to the southeast, which was seen at every interval of clear weather, encouraged us to persevere in that direction, and on the morning of the 9th, after sailing more than two hundred miles 282 STORIES OF DISCOVERY, through this pack, we gained a perfectly clear sea, and bore away southeast towards the magnetic pole. On the morning of the nth of January, when in lati- tude 70° 41' S., and longitude 172° 39', E. land was dis- covered at the distance, as it afterwards proved, of nearly a hundred miles directly in the course we were steering, and therefore between us and the pole. Although this circumstance was viewed at the time with considerable regret, as being likely to defeat one of the more important objects of the expedition, yet it re- stored to England the honor of the discovery of the southernmost known land, which had been nobly won, and for more than twenty years possessed, by Russia. Continuing our course towards this land for many hours, we seemed scarcely to approach it. It rose in lofty mountainous peaks of from nine to twelve thou- sand feet in height, perfectly covered with ieternal snow ; the glaciers, that descended from the mountain summit, projected many miles into the ocean, and presented a perpendicular face of lofty cliffs. As we neared the land, some exposed patches of rock appeared; and, steering towards a small bay for the purpose of effect- ing a landing, we found the shore so thickly lined for some miles with bergs and back ice, and a heavy swell dashing against it, that we were obliged to abandon our purpose, and steer towards a more promising looking point to the south, off which we observed several small islands; and on the morning of the 12th I landed, accompanied by Commander Crozier and a number of the officers of each ship, and took possession of the country in the name of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria. The island on which we landed is composed wholly MOUNT EREBUS, 283 of igneous rocks, numerous specimens of which, with other embedded minerals, were procured. It is in lati- tude 71° 56' S., and longitude 171° 7' E. Observing that the east coast of the main land trended to the southward, whilst the north shore took a northwesterly direction, I was led to hope that by penetrating to the south as far as practicable it might be possible to pass beyond the magnetic pole, which our combined observations placed in 76° nearly, and thence, by steering westward, complete its circumnavigation. We accordingly pursued our course along this mag- nificent land, and on the 23d of January we reached 74° 15' S., the highest southern latitude that had ever been attained by any preceding navigators, and that by our own countryman. Captain J. Weddell. Although greatly impeded by strong southerly gales, thick fogs, constant snow-storms, we continued the ex- amination of the coast to the southward, and on the 27th we again landed on an island in latitude 76° 8' S., and longitude 168° 12' E., composed, as on the former occasion, entirely of igneous rocks. Still steering to the southward, early the next morn- ing a mountain, of 12,400 feet above the level of the sea, was seen emitting flame and smoke in splendid profusion. This magnificent volcano received the name of Mount Erebus. It is in latitude 77° 32' S., and longitude 167° E. An extinct crater to the eastward of Mount Erebus, of somewhat less elevation, was called Mount Terror. The mainland preserved its southerly trending, and we continued to follow it until, in the afternoon, when close in with the land, our further progress in that direc- 284 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. tion was prevented by a barrier of ice, stretching away from a projecting cape of the coast directly to the E. S. E. This extraordinary barrier presented a perpendicu^ lar face of at least 150 feet, rising, of course, far above the mast-heads of our ships, and completely concealing from our view everything beyond it, except only the tops of a range of very lofty mountains in a S. S. E. direction, and in latitude 79° S. Pursuing the examination of this splendid barrier to the eastward, we reached the latitude of 78° 4' S., the highest we were at any time able to attain, on the 2d of February; and having on the 9th traced its continuity to the longitude of 190° 23' in latitude 78° S., a distance of more than three hundred miles, our further progress was prevented by a heavy pack, pressed closely against the barrier ; and the narrow lane of water, by means of which we had penetrated thus far, became so completely covered by rapidly forming ice, that nothing but the strong breeze, with which we were favored, enabled us to retrace our steps. When at a distance of less than half a mile from its lofty icy cliffs, we had soundings with three hundred and eighteen fathoms on a bed of soft blue mud. With a temperature of 20° below the freezing point, we found the ice to form so rapidly on the surface that, any further examination of the barrier in so extremely severe a period of the season being impracticable, we stood away to the westward for the purpose of making another attempt to approach the magnetic pole, and again reached its latitude, 76° S., on the 15th of Febru- ary ; and, although we found that much of the heavy ice had drifted away since our former attempt, and its place, NEAREST APPROACH TO THE POLE, 285 in a great measure, supplied by recent ice, yet we made some way through it, and got a few miles nearer to that pole than we had before been able to accomplish, when the heavy pack again frustrated all our efforts, com- pletely filling the space of fifteen or sixteen miles be- tween us and the shore. We were this time in latitude 76° 12' S., and longitude 164°, the dip being ZZ"" 40', and variation 109° 24' E. We were, of course, 160 miles from the magnetic pole. Had it been possible to have approached any part of this coast, and to have found a place of security for the ships, we might have travelled this short distance over the land ; but this proved to be utterly impracti- cable ; and although our hopes of complete attainment have not been realized, it is some satisfaction to feel assured that we have approached the magnetic pole more nearly by some hundreds of miles than any of our predecessors, and from the multitude of observations that have been made in both ships, and in so many different directions from it, its position can be deter- mined with nearly as much accuracy as if we had actually reached the spot. It had ever been an object of anxious desire with us to find a harbor for the ships, so as to enable us to make simultaneous observations with the numerous ob- servations that would be at work on the important term-day of the 28th of February, as well as for other scientific purposes ; but every part of the coast where indentations appeared, and where harbors on other shores usually occur, we found so perfectly filled with perennial ice of many hundred feet in thickness, that all our endeavors to find a place of shelter for our vessels were quite unavailing. 286 STORIES OF DISCOVERY. Having now completed all that it appeared to me possible to accomplish in so high a latitude, at so ad- vanced a period of the season, and desirous to obtain as much information as possible of the extent and form of the coast we had discovered, as also to guide, in some measure, our future operations, I bore away on the 1 8th of February for the north part of this land, and which by favor of a strong southerly gale we reached on the morning of the 21st. We again endeavored to effect a landing on this part of the coast, and were again defeated in our at- tempt by the heavy pack, which extended for many miles from the shore, and rendered it impossible. For several days we continued to examine the coast to the westward, tracing the pack edge along, until on the 25th of February we found the land abruptly ter- minate, in latitude 70° 40' S., and longitude 165° E., trending considerably to the southward of west, and presenting to our view an immense space occupied by the newly formed ice, and so covered by recent snow as to present the appearance of one unbroken mass, and defying every attempt to penetrate it. The great southern land we have discovered, and whose continuity we have traced from nearly the 70th to the 79th degree of latitude, I am desirous to distinguish by the name of our Most Gracious Sovereign, Queen Victoria. It was as Colonel Ingham had foreseen ; this was the last reading for the winter. There had been one and another interruption, so that this afternoon was one of those April days when there is some little hope that spring will come. That hope was fulfilled. The next TITLE OF NEXT VOLUME. 28/ Wednesday Colonel Ingham received a box of May- flowers from Oliver Garner by mail; and at once he sent round a bended bow, and the young people joined him on Saturday, not for adventures in Polar ice, but to hunt for Trailing Arbutus at Little Crastis. And before another Saturday he was on his way to Spain. INDEX. Adelie Land, 265, 280. Adventures, Captain Bonneville's, 222. Africa, explorations in, 188-220; equatorial table-land of, compared with more northern latitudes, 201. African Exploration Society, 193. America, early maps of, 107. Antarctic Archipelago, 262, 263, 264. Antarctic Continent, discoverer of, 8, 260; archipelago of, 262; ap- pearances of land, 266; icebergs, 269; icy cliffs, 271; Cape Carr, 272; a landing effected, 273; specimens of rocks, 275; D'Ur- ville's discovery, 278. Atlantic Coast, discovery of, 107. Baker, Sir Samuel W., 199. Banks, Sir Joseph, 154, 157, 159, 160, 163, 165. Barmga, Lake, 198. Barrow, Sir James, 168. Barrow, Sir John, 168. Behring's Strait, 168. Bethencourt, Jean de, 35. Bounty, Cape, 176. Bruce, James, 190; 191-194. Buffalo, 227. Buffalo-chase, a, 248. Burton, Lieutenant, 193, 194, Byron, Admiral, 147, 148. Cabot, Sebastian, Sy^ 107. Canary Islands, 13, 17, 35, Caiion, running a, 232; geologic formation of, 236. Cape of Good Hope, 36 ; discovery of, 39; 40,44, 82. Cape Verd Islands, 25; discovery of, 35; 83. Carson, Kit, 228, 229, 230, 239, 256. Cartagena, Juan de, 69, 70, 72. Carteret, Captain Philip, 148 ; voy- age of , 149. Casa Montezuma, 251-253. Castro, General, 256, 257. Charles v. of Spain, 61, 67, 68, 6g» Chili, 92. Circumnavigation of the globe, 84. Coello, Nicolas, 44, 45, 48, 52, 53,55. Columbus, Christopher, 8, 9 ; first voyage of, 10 ; object of voyage, 10; sails from Palos, 11; events of first days, 11, 12; refits at the Canaries, 13; account of voyage, 13; signs of land, 14; landing at Guanahani, 15 ; first impressions of the Indians, 15, 16; appear- ance of the West Indies, 18, 19; the search for Cuba, 20, 21 ; Martin Pinzon's desertion, 22, 23; third voyage of Columbus, 24, 25 ; Trinidad discovered, 26 ; speculations of Columbus, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 33* 62. China, 60. Cipango, 20. Clapperton, Captain Hugh, 205. Cook, Captain James, 148, 261, 262, 264. 19 290 INDEX. ** Cook's Voyages," extract from, 152. Coronado, 241, footnote, Corrientes, Cape, 42. Cuba, 20; search for, 21, 22. Dahomey, 209. Decker, Baron von, 195. Diaz, Bartholomew, 36, "^Z^ 39. Drake, Sir Francis, 86, Z^'.^ com- mission of, 89; sails from Ply- mouth, 90 ; Hakluyt accounts of Drake's voyage in Pacific, 91- 106, 146. Dumont D*Urville, 264, 265, 278, 279, 280. Eld, Mount, 266, 267. Elizabeth's Isle, 129. Erebus, Mount, 283. Europa, 9, Falkland Islands, 147. Fletcher, Francis, notes of, 87-90. Franklin, Sir John, 168, 169. Fremont, Colonel John, 223, 241. " Fremont's Travels," 223, Fremontia, 242, 245. Gama, Paulo da, 47, 48, 53, 56. Gama, Vasco da, 34, 35, -^"j ; chosen to find water-route to East Indies, 39; sights Cape of Good Hope, 40; explores coast of Natal, 41; Land of Good People, 42; Melinda, 43, 44; reaches Zanzi- bar, 44; return of Da Gama, 45 ; Hakluyt account of the voy- age, 46-58. " General History of Virginia," 127. Geographical Society of England, 193- Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 119; last voyage of, 120-126; death of, 126. Gosnold, Bartholomew, 127, 133, Guadaloupe, 133. Guadalquivir, 27. Guanahani, 15. Guatulco, 94, 103. Gulf of Guinea, discovery of, 36. Hakluyt Society, publications of, 45 ; extracts from, 46, 91. Hearne, Samuel, 176. Henry, Cape, 133. Henry of Portugal, 35; motto of, 35» 36. Hawkins, Capt. John, 86. Hispaniola, 23, 25. Huelva, 30, 31. Hunt, Robert, 132. Indians, 15 ; appearance of, 16; 17, loi, 102; in Massachusetts, 128, 129, 130, 131; in Virginia, 134, 135, 136-144,226; Zuni Indians, 250. Isabella of Spain, 10, 11, 31, 33. Jamestown, first settlement of, 131-136; colony, government of, T^ZZ^ 134- Japan, 20, 59. Jefferson, Thomas, 221, 222, John II. of Portugal, 36, 38, 61. Karagw^, 196. Kilimi Njaro, ascent of, 195. Kittara, people of, 197. La Tulipe, 225. Lewis and Clark, expedition of, 222. Livingstone, David, 191. Livingston, Robert, 221 ; letter of, to Thomas Jefferson, 221. Louisiana Purchase, 221; states made from this territory, 222. Madeiras, discovery of, 35. Magellan, 59, 60; birthplace of , 60; early history, 60; conceives of western route to East Indies, 60 ; is repulsed by King of Portugal, 61 ; offers services to Charles V. of Spain, 61 ; sails for Brazil, 61 ; suppresses mutiny, 61, 70, 71, 72 ; INDEX, 291 account of voyage, by a Genoese pilot, 62-73 ; death of Magellan, 76; the voyage home, 73-85; the earth circumnavigated, 84, ^^\ 146. Magellan, Strait of, 102, 103. Magnetic Poles, 171, 172, 283. Marchena, Juan Perez de, 31, 32. Martha's Vineyard, 127, 128. Massachusetts, coast of explored, 127-131. Matavai, 152-155. McClure, Robert, 168, Mediterranean, 59. Melinda, King of, 44. Melville Islands, 178. Mendoga, Luis, 65, 69, 71. Mirage, 253. Moluccas, the 'j'jy 95. Monrovia, 203. Montezuma, 250. Nansen, Captain Fridtjof, 187. Natal, 41. Navarrete, 8. Negroes, 35, slave-trade introduced into Portugal, 35. New Georgia, 186, 263. New Orkneys, 262, 263. New Orleans, 221. New South Shetland, 262. New South Wales, landing in, 161. New Zealand, landing in, 1 56-161. Newport, Christopher, 132, 133, 134, 135. 136. Niger, mouth of, 202. Nile, source of, 188-201 ; tributaries of, 200; Nile region, temperature of, 201. North Georgian Gazette, 186. North Georgian Islands, 186. Northwest Passage, 167-169. Nyanza, Albert, 189. Nyanza, Victoria, 189, 194. Nyassa, Lake, 194. Oklahoma, 245. Oregon, Zt* Pacific Ocean, 59 ; Drake's voy- age in, 91-106; 145, 146, 147. Pacific States, 222. Palos, II, 30, 31. Parry, Captain Edward, 168, 169, 186. Peary, Lieutenant Robert, 187. Philippine Islands, 62. Pike, Captain Zebulon, 222. Pinta, the, 12, 13, 22, 23. Pinzon, Martin Alonzo, 12, 15, 22, 23, 24. Pinzon, Vincent, 15, 24. Pocahontas, 143, 44, Powhatan, 134, 142, 143. Prince Regent's Inlet, discovery of, 174. Providence, Cape, 184. Quesada, Gaspar de, 65, 69, 70. Rabida, Convent of, 29, 31, Red River, 246. Rhodes, Cecil, 189, 202. Rodriguez, Arthur, 55, 56. Ross, Captain James, 265 ; narra- tive of, 280. Sahara, 202. Salt Lake, 238, 239, 240 ; first sur- vey of, 241. San Francisco, Bay of, 87. San Salvador, 22. Silva, Nunoda, 100, 103. Smith, Captain John, 131, 132, 133 ; explores Virginia, 134 ; con- spiracy against, 135, 136 ; is taken prisoner by Indians, 137, 138, 139, 140 ; his life saved by Pocahontas, 143 ; further adven- tures of, 143, 144. Snowy Mountains, 195. Solander, Doctor Daniel Charles, 154, 157, i59> 165. South America, discovery of, 27. South Sea Company, 146, 147. Speke, Lieutenant John Hanning, I93» i94> i95t 196, 197, 198, 200. 292 INDEX. Stanley, Sir Henry M., 191. St. Helena, Bay of, 40. Sverdrup, Otto Neumann, 187. Tahiti, 148. Terrestrial Paradise, 28, 29. Trappers' Life, 223. Trinidad, discovery of, 26 ; appear- ance of, 27. Tupia, 159, 160, 161, 162. Uganda, 196; natives of, 196. Valparaiso, 92. Verrazzano, 108; first discoverer of Atlantic Coast, 108; letter of, 1 08-119. Virginia, General History of, by Captain John Smith, 127, Wallis, Captain Samuel, 148, 153. West Indies, 133. White Devil, The, pantomime of, 218. Wilkes, Captain Charles, 8, 264, 265. Wingfield, Edward, 132, 134. Winter Harbor, 184-187. Writings on stone, 254. Yarro, King, 220. Young, Brigham, 241. Youriba, King of, 206-215; cus- toms and laws of Kingdom, 214, 216, 217, 218. Zanzibar, 44. Zuni Indians, 250. Stories of War^ the Sea^ Adventur et Discoveryt and Inventions Collected and Edited by EDWARD EVERETT HALE Attthof of ^^The Man Without a Country/^ etc. Stories of Wan Told by Soldiers. i6mo. Cloth, ^i.oo. These stories of great battles of the Civil War told by soldiers in- clude Bull Run, Forts Henry and Donelson, the Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, Pittsburg Landing, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Chicamauga, Chattanooga, the Wilderness Campaign, Sherman's March, and the Siege of Richmond. Stories of the Sea* Told by Sailors. i6mo. Cloth, ^i.oo. 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