SmBESSt i r r HAiLF-HOURjg WITH THE EARLY V,. COLOMBO IN SIGHT OF A NEW LAND. HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. THOMAS FROST, Author of " History of the Indian Revolt" "Memoirs of the Madiais," etc. tmnuroiut CASSELL, FETTER, & GALPIN, LONDON, PARIS, AND NEW YORK. PREFACE. 'O period of the world's history presents us with more interesting records of zeal and enterprise, in the explora- tion of hitherto unknown lands and seas, than that between the middle of the thirteenth century and the close of the sixteenth. Marco Polo, following in the tracks of the Minorite monk, William de Ruysbroeck, opened up far Cathay to the knowledge of Europeans ; and Sir John Mandeville, if he did little for geography, awakened curiosity as to the less-known countries of Asia and Africa by his wondrous narrative, which reads like a chapter of Herodotus pieced with fragments of the " Thousand and One Nights." The invention of the mariner's compass prepared the way for the great enterprises which made famous the names of Colombo, and Gama, and Cabota, and Magalhaen. Though the polarity of the magnet was known long before, the discovery was not applied to navigation until the beginning of the fifteenth century. The results were the discovery of an ocean route to India, the opening of a new world to European enterprise, and the circumnavigation of the globe. For a century and a half, Spaniards, Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch vied with each other in the zeal and energy which they displayed in the navigation of distant seas and the exploration of unknown lands. As each State arrogated to itself the exclusive riofht to use thur o o ocean routes discovered by its subjects, or by foreign navigators in its service, the skill and daring of explorers were tasked to the utmost for the discovery of seas and straits hitherto unknown. While Vespucci sought in the trackless Southern Ocean for a western passage to the PREFACE. East, Cabota, Verazzano, and Cartier sought it by northern naviga- tion ; and, long after the route from the Atlantic to the Pacific had been found by Magalhaen, Willoughby, Chancellor, and Barents ploughed the North Polar seas in search of a passage to China and India round the North Cape of Europe, and Frobisher and Davis pursued a similar quest in the frozen waters that so long, by their intricacies and perils, defied the endeavours made, down to our time, to penetrate from Baffin's Bay to the North Pole and to Behring's Strait, The courage, and rarer moral qualities, of these early explorers have scarcely been appreciated at their full worth. In these days, when mail steamers of two or three thousand tons, starting at a fixed day and hour, make rapid voyages across oceans completely surveyed and mapped, the hesitation with which the old navigators put to sea, the frequency with which they returned to port, and the slowness of their progress are apt to raise a smile. But if we consider the smallness of their ships, the cumbrousness of their architecture, and the absence of the mechanical appliances of navigation now common,, and even of charts, we must acknowledge that, in courage and in seamanship, the navigators of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries have never been excelled. The narratives embraced within the limits of the present work, necessarily brief as they are, will, it is hoped, conduce to a just appreciation of the claims of the pioneers of geographical discovery during that period. They have been compiled from careful study of the originals, and of the maps and charts of the period, in the library of the British Museum ; and the illustrations have, for the most part, been copied from engravings made for early editions, and for other works of .* these evil spirits, to attach bells to their horses and camels to prevent their going astray, and to adopt a code of signals for their guidance. Undismayed by these weird stories, our travellers entered the desert, traversed it in safety, and rested themselves awhile in the fertile province of Karmel, where they found the people very friendly and hospitable. Resuming their journey they reached the borders of Cathay, and at Chandu beheld the summer palace of the Khan, its marble columns and gilded cupolas glittering * Frcm a woodcut in the Livre des Mervei'.Ie*, an old French work. 16 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. in the sunlight. It stood in the midst of a park sixteen miles in circum- ference, beautifully wooded and watered, abundantly stocked with deer, and surrounded by a high wall. The summer season being past, the Khan was not residing there ; and our travellers continued their journey through the Flowery Land, reaching the city of Cambalu (identified with Peking by Benedict Goez in the seventeenth century) in 1275, four years after their departure from Venice. Khubla Khan, on receiving intelligence of their approach, dispatched messengers to meet them at the distance of forty days' journey from the capital, with instructions to show them every mark of honour and distinction, and to see that they wanted nothing by the way that was necessary to their comfort. On their arrival at Cambalu, they were presented to the Khan without delay, and, after prostrating themselves before him, according to the custom of the country, were conducted to the banquet-hall, where the table was covered with every luxury that the chase and the garden could supply. On a low platform, at the head of the festive board, stood the throne, spark- ling with precious stones, on which sat Khubla Khan, with his four wives on the right and the left, each attended by a numerous train. All the magnates of -the empire were present, and the throng of guests and attendants, the flash of jewels and the waving plumes, the rich profusion of gold and silver plate, made a scene of oppressive and bewildering magnificence. When the feast was over, jugglers, acrobats, and minstrels were introduced, to contribute to the delectation of the guests ; and when all was done, the travellers were conducted to a magnificent palace, which was assigned to them as a residence, and where they were provided with every luxury, and waited upon by a numerous staff of attendants. On the following morning they again waited on the Khan, to whom Nicolo Polo presented the Pope's letter and a small bottle containing some of the oil used for the lamps in the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, which Khubla received reverently, supposing, from the veneration with which the travellers regarded it, that it must possess rare virtues. Then refresh- ments were placed before them, and the Khan began to inquire of them concerning the journey, their affairs, and the state of Europe, about which he exhibited an intelligent curiosity. As the elder Polos were thoroughly acquainted with the Mongol language, no interpreter was required, and their replies seemed to give the Khan great satisfaction. Towards the end of the MARCO POLO. interview, he asked who Marco was, and, on learning his relationship to the others, he expressed an intention to take him under his protection, and appointed him at once to an honourable position in his household. Young Polo immediately applied himself diligently to the study of the language, laws, and customs of the country, in order that he might be as useful as possible to the Khan, with whom he soon became a great favourite. The TARTARS ON THE ROAD (Livre des Merveilles). intelligence and discretion with which he executed every commission that was entrusted to him won the Khan's confidence, and he was employed, first in services to be performed in the neighbourhood of the capital, and afterwards on affairs of importance in various parts of the empire, sometimes to the distance of six months' journey. In this manner he acquired so much know- ledge of the country that the fidelity of his topographical descriptions is recognised by travellers who have visited China within the last hundred years. It has been remarked, as a singular omission, that he makes no mention B 1 8 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. of the great wall of China, through which, it seems, he should have passed, and which must have made a deep impression on a mind so prone to the marvellous. Marsden remarks that Polo did not merely arrive once in China, and depart by the same route, but " resided many years in the country, was actively employed in the service of the Chinese Emperor, who sent him occasionally upon foreign missions ; and, in the performance of his ordinary ELEPHANT HUNTING (Livre des Mei-veilles) duties, must have been incessantly passing and repassing between the capital, where was his master's winter residence, and the summer palaces, by the gates or fortified passes through which the great roads lead to Northern Tartary, where the character of the great national rampart well deserves the epithet of stupendous. In this quarter it is that the omission is a subject of surprise, and not in that where he, together with his father and uncle, may be presumed to have entered the Chinese territory." In these routes, his silence cannot be accounted for by the wall being, as it is described by Du Halde, in the MARCO POLO. 19 western part, " merely made of earth, low, narrow, and sometimes buried in the sand." Marsden conjectures that the portion of Polo's MS. that described -the great wall has been lost or designedly omitted, as too improbable ; and he supports this hypothesis by the fact that, in Ramusio's version of the narrative, a whole chapter has been omitted without notice, though it existed in the earlier Latin editions, was necessary for the connection of the subject, and is indirectly referred to in a subsequent chapter. But it is conceivable that the traveller may have passed the wall without being informed of its wonderful extent, or in what it differed from the other fortified posts which he notices ; and there are well-grounded reasons for believing that the Chinese would not tell him anything about it, or in any way direct attention to it. Lord Macartney passed it centuries afterwards without the slightest remark concerning it being made by any one of his numerous escort ; and we learn from Marsden's notes to his translation of Polo's narrative, " that in the Persian account of the journey performed by the ambassadors sent by Shah Rokh, in 1420, to the Emperor of China, and which in many respects is circumstantial, no notice whatever is taken of the wall ; although in their progress from Kan-cheu to the Kara-muran or Yellow-river, they must have coasted or traversed the line of its direction." And again, from the same authority, we learn' that, "even by the geographers of Persia and Arabia, who were laborious in collecting information of that kind, and had the means of obtaining it from the Mahometans who traded between Bokhara, Kashgar, and China, no mention is made of any extensive rampart, either of masonry or earth, constructed for defending the borders of Khatai." The portion of China which was subject to the Mongol Khans when the Polos arrived at Cambalu comprised the provinces north of the Kiang-ku, and Khubla was then successfully prosecuting a war with the rulers of the territory south of that river. The strong-walled city of Sa-yan-fu, situated on a branch of the Yang-tse-kiang, had, however, defied for three years his efforts to reduce it. The Polos suggested to the Khan the use of powerful catapults, such as were Used in Europe before the invention of artillery for hurling enormous stones against the defences of beleaguered cities. Khubla was pleased with the idea, and placed the best smiths and carpenters in the capital at the disposal of the Polos for the construction of the machines. B 2 20 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. When the catapults were made, and their powers had been tested in his presence, he was filled with wonder and admiration ; and the Polos were immediately dispatched with the machines against the city which the Mongols had so long besieged in vain. The huge stones propelled against the city, each crushing some building in its fall, inspired such terror and awe in the minds of the defenders that they immediately offered to MENAGERIE OF THE GREAT KHAN (Livre des Merveilles). capitulate. The banner of Khubla Khan soon waved above the walls and towers of Sa-yan-fu, and wealth and honours were showered upon the Polos with the utmost prodigality. It may be observed here, that, though the Chinese were acquainted with the composition and manufacture of gunpowder long before this time, they used it only for making fireworks ; and its use for military purposes was unknown in Europe for nearly a century after- wards. Marco Polo, rising rapidly in the estimation of Khubla Khan, was MARCO POLO. 21 ultimately created a magnate of the empire, and had assigned to him, in the city of Nan-qui, a palace and a retinue even larger and more magnificent than those which he had enjoyed before. The civil administration of the province of which Nan-qui was the chief city was confided to him, and he discharged his functions in a manner which gave equal satisfaction to the Khan and to the people. LANDING OF MARCO POLO AT ORMUS (Livre des Merveilles). y The Polos had been seventeen years in China, and had amassed enormous fortunes, when a desire to see Venice once more came upon them, and grew with the reflection that Khubla Khan had become a very old man, and that his decease might seriously affect their prospects. Nicolo and Matteo ac- cordingly sought permission to return to their own country ; but this the Khan was indisposed to grant, so necessary had they become to him, and, though he offered them any other boon they should ask, the required per- mission could not be obtained. 22 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. There was at this time at the Court of Khubla Khan an embassy from Arghun, the Tartar monarch of Persia, who was a lineal descendant of Ghenghis Khan, and, therefore, a near relation of the ruler of Cathay. Their mission was to obtain the hand of a Mongol princess for Arghun, and it had been successful ; but when they had travelled eight months on their journey homeward, with the princess and her attendants, they found war raging in the countries through which they had to pass, and were obliged to return to Cambalu. Marco Polo had just returned from a voyage in the Indian seas, and to him the Persian envoys applied, in order to learn whether it would be possible to return to Persia by sea. The Polos thought that this idea might be turned to account for their own purpose, and assured the envoys that such a voyage was perfectly practicable, and that, if the Khan would consent to his grand-daughter making the journey by sea, Marco, who was acquainted with the seas which they would have to navigate, should be their pilot, if they could obtain the Khan's permission for their own departure likewise. Khubla- received with favour the proposition that his grand-daughter should go to Persia by sea, but he consented very reluctantly to the departure of the Polos, and only on their promising to return to Cambalu when they had passed a short time in their own country. Fourteen ships, each fitted with four masts, manned by 250 men, and provisioned for two years, were equipped for the voyage. The Polos received full powers to act as am- bassadors of the Khan to the Pope and all the Powers of Christendom ; and, as a last token of his esteem, were presented with caskets of rubies and other gems of enormous value. Three months were occupied in the voyage from China to Sumatra, though they had fair weather, and when that island was reached, they were detained there five months by adverse winds. Getting away again at last, they steered to the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, and thence to Ceylon, which Marco Polo pronounced the most beautiful island in the world. Touching the coast of the Carnatic, and gleaning there some curious infor- mation concerning the customs and superstitions of the Hindoos, he next steered for the Persian Gulf, and arrived at Ormus at the end of a voyage of eighteen months, during which two of the three Persian envoys, and no fewer than 600 of the retinue of the Mongol princess, had died. At Ormus they learned that both Arghun and Khubla Khan had departed this life, and, after a journey into Khorasan, where Kasan, the son of Arghun, MARCO POLO. 23 was residing during his minority, they proceeded to Tauris, where the Court of the Regency was held, and remained there nine months. They then received tablets of gold from the Regent, and set out for Trebizond, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, travelling through Kurdistan and Mingrelia. At Trebizond they took passages to Venice, and reached their native city in safety, after an absence of twenty-four years. Their identity was at first doubted, but when they had proved that they were the Polos who had left Venice so long before, their fame soon spread far and wide. Shortly after their return, the reputation of Marco Polo as a skilful navigator caused him to be appointed to the command of a ship of the Venetian fleet, ind, war then existing between Venice and Genoa, he was taken prisoner in an engagement that quickly followed. It was while a prisoner at Genoa, where he remained four years, that he wrote the narrative of his travels and of his residence in China, which has made his name famous. He was liberated in 1300, and returned to Venice, where he died in 1323, when he was about seventy-three years of age. CHAPTER IL THE TRAVELS OF SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. THIS famous old traveller, whose quaintly-written narrative is as full of the wild and the wonderful as the story of Sinbad the Sailor, was not only the earliest English explorer, but also the first writer of English prose in any department of literature. He was born at St. Alban's in 1300, and received the liberal education required for the profession of medicine. He set out upon his travels on the 2Qth of September, 1332, and, as he states in his preface, " went through many lands, and many kingdoms, provinces and isles, and passed through Turkey, and through Armony the Little and the Great ; through Tartary, Sury, Arabia, Egypt the High and the Low ; through Liby, Chaldea, and a great part of ALthiope ; through Amazony ; through India the Less and the More, and through many isles which are about India, where many dwell of divers shapes." The narrative thus prefaced is vague and rambling, and affords few indi- cations of the routes followed by the writer, while its value is further detracted from by the fact that, though he states that he visited all the countries described, the Munchausen-like stories which he tells of many of them throw a grave doubt upon his veracity. We gather from his first chapter that he passed through Germany, Hungary, Servia, and Bulgaria to Constantinople, which is the first place of which he gives any description. It was then the capital of the Greek empire, subverted by the Turks about seventy years after Mandeville's visit ; and, with its cathedral, circus, and hippodrome, one of the finest, as well as the largest, cities in Europe. From that port he appears to have sailed for the Greek islands, but the peculiar language in which he embodies his knowledge of them leaves the reader to guess which he visited, and which he describes from report. Thus he says, after a brief notice of Candia : " And thence men pass through the isles of Cephas and Largo, of SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. the which isles Ipocras was lord ; and some say that in the Isle of Largo is Ipocras his daughter, in the manner of a dragon, who is a hundred foot long, as men say, for I have not seen her, and they of the Isles call her the Lady of the Country ; and she lieth in an old castle, and showeth thrice in the year, and she doth no man harm ; and she is thus changed from a damsel to GROUP OF TEMPLARS. a dragon through a goddess that men call Diana; and some say that she shall dwell so unto the time that a knight come that is so hardy as to go and kiss her mouth, and then she shall turn again to her own kind, and be a woman, and after that she shall not live long." 26 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Such stories as this form a considerable portion of Mandevi lie's narrative. He devotes a whole chapter to this legend of the daughter of Hippocrates, while of the island of Rhodes, he relates only that it was taken from the Emperor of Greece by the Knights of St. John. There is a longer account of Cyprus, from which island he seems to have passed over to Sur, the ancient Tyre, CIRCUS AND HIPPODROME OF ANCIENT CONSTANTINOPLE. and thence to Jaffa, of which he says, " It is the oldest town in the world, for it was made before Noah's flood, and there be bones of a giant's side that be forty foot long." From Jaffa he went to Nice, and thence to Gaza, which he describes as, at that time, "a rich city, fair, and full of people." He indicates the route thence to Jerusalem, and then turns aside to notice Mount Sinai and the convent of St. Catherine there, "wherein are many lamps burning, and they'have olive oil enough to eat and to burn, and that they SSA JOHN MANDEVILLE. have by miracle, for they say there come certain of all manner of birds every year once, like pilgrims, and each of them bringeth a branch of olive, in token of offering, whereof they make oil." Having traversed the desert, he visited Beersheba and the Vale of Hebron, where, in the side of a hill, he was shown the sepulchres of the patriarchs Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives. He relates the curious MOUNT ARARAT. legend that Adam and Eve were created on this spot, and thence removed to- the Garden of Eden, where they abode only a single day, " for the same day that he was put into Paradise, the same day he was driven out, as soon as he had sinned." Two miles from Hebron he was shown the grave of Lot, and near it an oak which he was told had been there since the creation of the world. It bore leaves until the time of Christ, since which time it had been dry. There was a prophecy, he says, that a prince of the west should deliver 28 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Palestine from the Saracens, and worship God beneath this tree, which should then bear leaves again. From Hebron a ride of five miles through pleasant woods brought him to Bethlehem, where he pauses to relate a story of a fair maiden, who was wrongfully put to death, to which he devotes the greater part of a chapter. Mandeville has, naturally, much to say concerning Jerusalem, for, apart from the interest which it has always possessed as the scene of so many great events, the Crusades had caused its name to be in everybody's mouth. Several chapters are devoted to the remarkable places of the city, and then he takes us to Bethany, whence he rode to Jericho. A day's journey from this place brought him to the Jordan, and from that river he turned towards the Dead Sea, of which he says : " It is called the Dead Sea because it runneth not neither may any man or beast live therein ; and that hath been proved many times, for they have cast therein men that were judged to death : nor no man may drink of the water. And if men cast iron therein, it cometh up again ; but if a man cast a feather therein, it sinketh ; which is against kind. And thereabouts grow trees that bear fruit of fair colour, and seeming ripe ; but when a man cutteth them, he findeth nought in them but coals and ashes, in token that through the vengeance of God those cities were burnt with the fire of hell. And some men call that lake the Lake of Asphaltis, and some call it the Pool of the Devil, and some call it the Stinking Pool, for the water thereof stinketh." Pausing at Nazareth to relate the monkish legends concerning the mother of Jesus, our traveller went on to Mount Tabor, and thence to Tiberias, where he is careful to state that the Sea of Galilee is not an inlet of the ocean, but a lake of fresh water. Thence he passes into Armenia, prefacing his account of the country by describing the route from Genoa or Venice to Trebizond. His account of Mount Ararat is so characteristic of the writer that we must quote it. " On that hill," he says, " a man may see very far in clear weather, for the hill is full seven miles of height ; and some say they have been there, and put their fingers in the holes where the fiend went out when Noah said Benedicite. But I judge that, for snow that is always upon that hill, both winter and summer, no man hath ever gone up since Noah was there ; but only one is said to have been there, who brought a plank that is yet in the abbey of the hill's foot ; for he had great desire to go up that hill, and when he was at the third part upward, he was so weary that he might not go SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. 29 farther, and he rested him and slept ; and when he was awoke, he was down at the hill-foot, and then prayed he to God devoutly that He would surfer him to go to the upper part of the hill, and an angel said that he should have his THE DEAD SEA. desire, 'and so he did ; and since that time no man did ever come there. But a man ought not to believe all things that are spoken of it." It seems very doubtful whether Mandeville went beyond the present eastern limits of the Ottoman empire, for the remainder of his narrative is an almost unbroken series of wild stories, rivalling the relations of Peter Wilkins and Baron Munchausen. Though he states in his preface that he 30 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. went " through Amazony," he describes that region somewhat vaguely as being near Chaldea, and adds, " as men say," to his statement that " therein dwell no men, but all women." Again: " In ^Ethiope are such men as have but one foot, and they go so fast that it is a great marvel, and that is a large foot, for the shadow thereof covereth the body from sun or rain, when they SOME OF THE MARVELS WHICH SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE SAW (Livre des Mctveillts). Vie upon their backs." What are we to think of the veracity of a traveller who relates such stories of the peoples whom he asserts that he visited ? In India he drank of the well which had the power of renewing the youth of those who partook of its water ; and he asserts that he felt younger after- wards. He describes correctly the festival of Juggernauth, and many of the customs and religious rites of the Hindoos. From India he made a voyage to Java, " the king of which land has a rich palace, and the best that is in the world ; for all the stairs of his hall and chambers are made, one of gold and another of silver ; and all the walls are plated with fine gold and silver, and SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. in those places are written stones of knights and battles. And the floors of the halls and chambers are of gold and silver ; so that no man would believe the great riches that are there, except he had seen it." The farther he extends his explorations, the greater become the marvels which he records. In the Island of Macumeran, the natives have the head:; of dogs, like the strange beings with which the Russians terrified Carpini. SOME MORE OF THE MARVELS WHICH SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE SAW (Livre dfS Aferveittes). In another island of the Indian archipelago are white lions and double-headed geese. In a third are men with only one eye, like the Cyclops ; in a fourth the natives are headless, and have their mouths and noses in their breasts, and their eyes in their shoulders ! In the Island of Mistorak, he had the hardihood to explore a deep valley, reputed to be haunted by demons ; and his account of what he saw and heard there is as sensational as Sinbad's story of his descent into the cavern that was to be his tomb, and his adventure with the sea-monster. .Beyond this wonderful island was another, inhabited by 32 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. giants twenty-eight feet high, who ate raw flesh, and preferred that of men ; and beyond this again another, in which were giants fifty feet high. But these, he gravely adds, he did not see. " There are many other countries," he observes, in concluding his narrative, " where I have not yet been nor seen, and therefore I cannot speak properly of them. Also in countries where I have been are many marvels that I speak not of, for it were too long a tale, and therefore hold you content at this time with this I have said, for I will say no more, so that other men who go thither may find enough for to say, that I have not told." He says that his narrative was written in 1364, but this date seems to apply to the English version ; for he wrote it originally in Latin, then translated it into French, and finally into English, "that every man of my nation may understand it." It has been several times reprinted, the edition cf 1705 being that which has been chiefly followed in the foregoing account. CHAPTER III. EARLY VOYAGES TO AFRICA DISCOVERY OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE BY BARTOLOMEO DIAZ. AFRICA, with the exception of the northern regions, was very little known to geographers before the latter part of the fifteenth century. It is probable that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians had, in the days of their maritime supremacy, some knowledge of other parts of the coast ; but they concealed their discoveries with the greatest care, lest other nations should reap the benefit of them, and no authentic accounts of them have been preserved. The circumnavigation of Africa is recorded by the Greek and Roman writers rather as a strange, amusing tale than as an actual voyage ; and, as neither the progress of the Phoenician and Carthaginian discoveries, nor the extent of their navigations, were communicated to the rest of the world, all memorials of them were lost when the maritime power of the former was annihilated by Alexander's conquest of Tyre, and the empire of the latter was overturned by the arms of Rome. There is no doubt, however, that a voyage round Africa was made by certain Phoenician navigators, by command of Pharaoh Necho, about six hundred and four years before the Christian era. They sailed from a port in the Red Sea, and, after a voyage of three years, arrived in the Mediter- ranean ; and the account which they gave furnishes incontrovertible proof that the circumnavigation was really accomplished. They stated that, having sailed for some time, the sun became more and more vertical, after which it appeared in the north, and seemed to recede from them ; and that, as they returned, the sun seemed to move gradually southward, and, after becoming vertical once more, appeared as when they set out. This, which we know must certainly have been the case, was deemed incredible at that time, and universal ignorance concerning Africa prevailed until the beginning of the fifteenth century. The maps of this period represent Africa as terminating north of the 34 HALF^HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Equator, and a curious one preserved in the Royal Library at Turin has an explanatory note, stating that, " besides these three parts of the world, there is beyond the ocean a fourth, which the extreme heat of the sun prevents our being acquainted with, and on the confines of which is the country of the CAPE BOJADOR. fabulous antipodes." The first attempts towards obtaining a better know- ledge of Africa were made by the Portuguese. Until 1412 they never ventured to pass Cape Nun. In that year they sailed beyond that point a hundred and sixty miles, reaching Cape Bojador, which, stretching far out C 2 36 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. into the sea, with lofty cliffs, appeared so dreadful to them, that they returned without making any attempt to pass it. They doubled this formidable cape for the first time in 1418, but the exploit was not repeated until 1433, when they penetrated between the tropics, and discovered Cape Verde and the mouth of the Senegal. The Equator was first passed by them in 1471, when they were surprised to find that the Torrid Zone, contrary to the opinion of the ancients, was not only habitable, but fertile and populous. In 1484, Diego de Cama, a bold and expert navigator, sailed as far as the coast of Congo. He was very well received by the natives, and sent some of his men with presents to the king ; but they being detained, by unforeseen causes, beyond the promised time of their return, he sailed away without them, taking four young men of the country as hostages for the safety of his countrymen. These he taught the Portuguese language, in which they made so much progress that the King of Portugal sent them back to Congo next year, with rich presents, charging them to exhort their monarch, in his name, to embrace Christianity, and permit it to be propagated throughout his dominions. An alliance was concluded between Portugal and Congo, which endured for centuries, though not without some interruptions, for which the Portuguese gave more cause than the Congoese. In 1486, Bartolomeo Diaz, a knight of the royal household, of Portugal, sailed for the South Atlantic, with two caravels of fifty tons each, and a small store-ship, to attempt further discoveries. Having reached a point on the coast of Africa farther south than Cama had explored, he set up a stone pillar to commemorate the event, and then, standing boldly out to sea, saw land no more until he was forty leagues to the eastward of the southern extremity of Africa, which a dense mist, peculiar to that latitude at certain seasons, had concealed from his sight. Having reached what is now known as Algoa Bay, the crew were unwilling to proceed farther; but Diaz prevailed on them to sail twenty-five leagues farther to the eastward. In that direction the land was seen stretching as far as they could see ; and Diaz reluctantly gave the order to steer to the west- ward. Having rounded Cape Agulhas, another promontory was seen stretching farther southward, to which Diaz gave the name of the Cape of Storms, from the tempestuous weather which prevailed during the time he was in the neighbouring seas. The discovery rewarded him for all his anxieties, for he BARTOLOMEO DIAZ. 37 had found the route from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, and he anticipated from it great advantages to his countrymen, who would now, he thought, suc- cessfully compete with the Venetians in the commerce with the East. The southern extremity of Africa, which Diaz had thus discovered, must have presented to the mariners of those days an aspect more formidable and uninviting even than Cape^Bojador. " The extremity of Africa towards the south," says Foster, a modern voyager, " is a mass of high mountains, of which the outermost are craggy, black, and barren, consisting of a coarse granite, which contains no heterogeneous parts, such as petrified shells, &c, nor any volcanic productions. The ground gradually rises on all sides towards the three mountains which lie around the bottom of the bay, keeping low and level only near the sea-side, and growing somewhat marshy in the isthmus between False and Table bays, where a salt rivulet falls into the latter. The marshy part has some verdure, but intermixed with a great deal of sand. The higher grounds, which, from the sea-side, have a parched and dreary appearance, are, however, covered with a great variety of plants, among which are a prodigious number of shrubs, but scarce one or two species that deserve the name of trees. "The ascent of Table Mount is very steep and difficult, on account of the number of loose stones, which roll away under the feet of the traveller. About the middle of the mountain is a bold grand chasm, whose walls are perpendicular, and often impending rocks piled up in strata. Small rills of water ooze out of crevices, or fall from precipices in drops, giving life to hundreds of plants and low shrubs in the chasm. The summit of the mountain is very level, very barren, and bare of soil ; several cavities, however, are filled with rain-water, or contain a small quantity of vegetable earth, from which a few .odoriferous plants draw their nourishment. Some antelopes, howling baboons, solitary vultures, and toads, are sometimes to be met with on the mountain : the view from thence is very extensive and picturesque ; the bay seems a small pond or basin, and the ships in it dwindle to little boats." The impression made upon the minds of Diaz and his crew by the thick mist that had at first hidden the promontory from their view, and the fierce storms which lashed its base on their return, is forcibly set forth by Camoens in the following passage of the " Lusiad," as translated by Mickle : '38 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARL? EXPLORERS. " Beneath the glistening wave the god of day Had now five times withdrawn the parting ray, When o'er the prow a sudden darkness spread, And, slowly floating o'er the mast's tall head, A black cloud hovered ; nor appeared from far The moon's pale glimpse, nor faintly twinkling star ; So deep a gloom the lowering vapour cast, Transfixed with awe, the bravest stood aghast." BEFORE THE WIND. Then, amidst the howling wind and thunder's roar, the Spirit of the Cape appears, and threatens destruction to all who venture to plough the seas that roll around the black promontory he guards. Diaz set up a pillar on the shore to establish the claim of the Portuguese to the discovery of the passage into the Indian Ocean, and steered homeward. The promontory which he had discovered was not long- to retain the BARTOLOMEO DIAZ. 39 designation which he had given it, for, on his arrival in the Tagus, in December, 1487, as related by Camoens : "At Lisbon's Court they told their dread escape, And from her raging tempests named the cape. ' Thou southmost point ! ' the joyful king exclaimed, ' Cape of Good Hope be thou for ever named.' " And by the name conferred upon it by the Portuguese monarch the southern- extremity of Africa has been known from that time to the present. COLOMBO. CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST VOYAGE OF CHRISTOVAO COLOMBO. THE great geographical problem of the fifteenth century was the discovery of an ocean route to India. The fertility and riches of that country had been known for ages ; its products were in great request throughout Europe, and the wealth of the Venetians, arising from their having engrossed this trade, excited the envy of every maritime nation. Long before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, the idea had occurred to the Genoese mariner whose name, in the Latinised form of Columbus, is familiar to every reader, that a passage to the far East, concerning which so much interest had been CHRISTOVAO COLOMBO. .41 created by the travels of Marco Polo, might be discovered by sailing towards the West. -The time when this idea began to dominate every other in Colombo's mind is uncertain. The date of his voyage to Iceland, where he may have learned what had been done in the tenth and eleventh centuries by Biarne and Ericson, has not been authoritatively deter- mined. In 1474, however, he communicated his ideas concerning the feasibility of reaching India by sailing westward to a Florentine physician, named Pauli, who had acquired an amount of cosmographical knowledge that made him famous, and, from the candour and learning displayed in his letters, ap- pears to have merited the confidence which Colombo reposed in him. Having fully satisfied him- self of the feasibility of the project, Colombo set about securing the support of some Government capable of under- taking its realisation. He first submitted his scheme to the Senate of Genoa, but he had resided so long at Lisbon that his character and abilities were unknown to his countrymen, and his offer was inconsiderately rejected, as the vain dream of an ideologist. He next addressed himself to the King of Portugal, who heard him attentively, and referred the consideration of his project to Ortiz, Bishop of Ceuta, and two Jewish physicians, whose cosmographical learning caused them to be consulted BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF PART OF GENOA. HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. by him on all such occasions. But, as these counsellors of the Portuguese monarch had already come to the conclusion that the way to India must MEDAL OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. LISBON IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. be found by sailing southward until the extremity of Africa was reached, and then turning eastward, they were not favourably impressed with Colombo's CHRISTOVAO COLOMBO. 43 idea. After many captious questions and objections, they deferred their report, and, in the meantime, induced the king to send an expedition secretly to follow the course suggested ^ by the Genoese mariner. Contrary winds caused the vessel to return to Lis- bon without any discovery having been made, and Colombo, discovering what had been done, quitted the country in indignation and disgust. The project was next submitted to Ferdinand and Isabella, sovereigns of the united kingdoms of Aragon and Castile ; and Bartolomeo, brother of the navigator, was at the same time dispatched to London, to negotiate with Henry VII. The Spanish sovereigns, fully occupied at that time with the military operations against the Moors of Grenada, remitted the consideration of the plan to Isabella's confessor, who, after consulting all the most learned men in Spain, reported un- favourably. Henry VII. had, in the meantime, received Bartolomeo encouragingly, but his caution and parsimony caused him to shrink from the enterprise ;> and, while he hesitated, the fall of Grenada disposed Isabella of Castile to reconsider the scheme, which was so strongly recommended by Quintanella, controller of the finances of Castile, and Santangelo, receiver of the eccle- SHIP OF COLOMBO. (From an old Woodcut). 44 HALF- HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. siastical revenues of Aragon, that all difficulties were at last surmounted, and a formal contract concluded between Colombo and the two sovereigns on the I ;th of April, 1492. The expedition was by no means commensurate with the dignity of the Spanish nation, or the magnitude of the enterprise for which it was destined. It consisted of three small vessels, which were victualled for twelve months, and manned by ninety men, including some gentlemen of the Castilian Court and a few adventurers who followed the fortunes of Colombo. It sailed from Palos on the 3rd of August, and the vessels proved so crazy and ill-appointed, even in the short run to the Canary Islands, that, on arriving at Gomera, one of the most westerly of that group, it was found necessary to refit them. After a delay of twenty-four days, Co- lombo sailed from Gomera on the 6th of September, and, holding his course due west, left immediately the usual track of navi- gators, and stretched into unknown seas. The sounding-line and the instruments for obser- vations were almost constantly in his hands. He watched the directions of the current, the flight of birds, the appearance of fishes, of sea-weeds, and everything that floated on the waves, entering everything in his journal with THE THREE SHIPS OF COLOMBO. minute exactness. By the I4th of September, the expedition was above two hundred leagues to the west of the Canaries, at a greater distance from land than seamen had ever been before. There they were struck with a phenomenon as startling as it was novel. They observed that the compass needle no longer pointed exactly to the north polar star, but veered towards the west, the variation increasing as they proceeded. This phenomenon, which remains one of the mysteries of nature, filled the crews with dismay. They were on an unknown ocean, hundreds of miles beyond the usual course of navigators, and the only guide of the mariner seemed about to fail them. Colombo invented a reason for the variation of the CHRISTOVAO COLOMBO. 45 needle which, though it did not satisfy himself, was plausible enough to dispel the fears and silence the murmurs of his followers ; and he still continued to sail due west, nearly in the latitude of the Canaries. This course brought the expedition within the in- fluence of the trade wind, which blows invariably from east to west between the tropics and a few degrees beyond them. They advanced before the steady breeze with such uniform speed that it was seldom necessary to shift a sail. When about four hundred leagues to the west of the Canaries, they found the sea so covered with marine vegetation as to resemble a vast prairie, and in some places the sea-weeds grew so thickly as to retard the motion of the vessels. This strange appearance caused new alarms and murmurings ; but the appearance of birds hovering about the ships, and directing their flight west- ward, revived the spirits of the crews, and encouraged them to proceed. On the 1st of October, when Colombo calculated that they were seven hundred and seventy leagues from Gomera, the crews displayed so insubordinate a spirit that his mental resources were strained to the utmost by the task of inducing them to continue the voyage. By the exercise of great tact REPRESENTATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. (From an old Woodcut.) 46 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. and firmness he prevailed upon them to proceed ; and they were soon en- couraged by the appearance of flocks of birds flying towards the south-west, and other indications of the contiguity of land. Guided by the movements of the birds Colombo had the course changed to south-west ; but, when several days passed without any appearance of land being discerned, the crews broke out into open mutiny, and even their officers, who had hitherto supported his authority, demanded that the expedition should be abandoned. The situation was a critical one ; but the signs of land were now so numerous and unmistakable, that Colombo thought he should risk nothing in promising to abandon the enterprise, and return to Spain, if land was not discovered in three days. To this officers and seamen assented. For some days the sounding-line had reached the bottom, and the soil brought up by the plummet indicated land to be at no great distance. The flocks of birds increased, and were composed not only of .sea-fowl, but of such land-birds as could not be supposed to fly far from the shore. A cane, which appeared to have been newly cut ; a branch of a tree, with red berries perfectly fresh ; a piece of timber, shaped and carved by human hands had been picked up. The clouds around the setting sun assumed a new appearance. The air was warmer, and the wind variable at night. From these signs Colombo argued the contiguity of land, and, on the evening of the 1 1 th of October, he ordered the sails to be furled, and the ships to lie to. Prayers for the success of the enterprise were offered, and all hands remained on deck through the night. About ten o'clock Colombo observed a light at a distance, and pointed it out to Pedro Gutierez, a page of the Queen's wardrobe. A little after midnight the welcome cry of "land!" was heard from the foremost vessel, which was commanded by Martino Pinzon, and at daybreak there was seen by all a low, green island, about two leagues to the north. The crews of the three vessels joined in singing the Te Deum, and implored pardon of Colombo for their late insubordination. As soon as the sun was above the horizon, all the boats were manned and pulled towards the island, with bands playing and colours waving in the breeze. As they approached the shore, they saw it covered with a multitude of naked copper-coloured people, having long black hair, and their fa%es and breasts painted with bright colours. They showed no signs of hostility, but, by their attitudes and gestures, expressed wonder and astonishment CHRISTOVAO COLOMBO.. 47 Colombo, richly dressed, and with a naked sword in his right hand, was the first to land. A crucifix was erected on the beach, before which the explorers knelt in prayer, after kissing the soil they had braved so many imaginary dangers to discover. They then took formal possession of the island in the name of Isabella of Castile, accord- ing to the invariable prac- tice of Portuguese disco- verers on similar occasions. The island thus dis- covered was called San Salvador. It is one of the large cluster known as the Bahama Islands. It was evident that this could not be India, and Colombo supposed it to be one of the many islands described by geographers as situated in the great ocean beyond that country. Observing that the natives wore nose- rings of gold, he inquired of them by signs where they obtained the precious metal, upon which they pointed to the south, and made him understand that gold abounded in the BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF CUBA. HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. regions in that direction. Thither he accordingly steered, taking with him seven of the natives, to serve as guides and interpreters when they had acquired sufficient knowledge of Spanish to be useful in that capacity. He VIEW IN CUBA. saw several islands, and touched at three, inquiring for gold, and still being directed southward. He soon reached the shores of an extensive country, diversified with hills and woods, and sailed into the mouth of a wide river. As the natives fled on the landing of the Spaniards, Colombo sent some of his followers, with one of the men of San Salvador, to survey the interior. They penetrated about CHRISTOVAO COLOMBO. 49 sixty miles inland, and found the soil rich and cultivated and the natives more intelligent than those of the Bahamas, but evidently of the same race. They were accompanied on their return to the ships by some of the natives who called the island Cuba, and informed Colombo that the gold of which they made their ornaments was found in Cubanacan. By this they meant the interior of the island ; but Colombo, ignorant of their language and with his thoughts running continually upon the discovery of India, thought they IDOLS OF THE HAYTIANS. spoke of the Great Khan, and that the opulent empire of Cathay, described by Marco Polo, was not far off. By this idea he was led to devote some time to the exploration of the island. Having reached the eastern extremity of the island without finding gold in such abundance as to satisfy either the avarice of his followers, or the expectations of the Court to which he was to return, and the natives pointing to the cast in answer to his inquiries for the precious metal, he sailed in the direction indicated, and on the 6th of December discovered Hayti, to which he gave the name of Hispaniola. Sailing along the north coast of the island, he entered a harbour, and D 50 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. renewed his inquiries for the gold mines he was anxious to discover. They concurred in referring him to a mountainous country to the eastward, ad he was sailing in that direction with a fair wind and smooth sea, when, owing to the negligence of the pilot, the ship struck upon a rock, and was soon broken up. The natives, in their canoes, were active in helping to save crew and stores, and all were got safely to the shore. Colombo now resolved to leave the crew of the wrecked vessel on the island to explore it, and to form the nucleus of a colony. The thirty-eight Spaniards who were to be left, and the natives and their cazique or chief, were equally pleased with this arrangement, by which Colombo hoped to secure and facilitate the acquisition of the advantages which he expected to accrue from his discoveries. Putting to sea again on the 4th of January, 1493, he sailed along the north coast to the eastern extremity of the island, and prepared to recross the Atlantic. They had fair winds and smooth sea until the I4th of February, when such a violent storm arose that the crews despaired of ever reaching Spain, and the skill of the navigator was taxed to the utmost. All through the night the tempest raged, but next day the wind abated, the sea became calm, and in the evening they were in sight of Santa Maria, one of the Azores. It being necessary to refit and take in provisions, they did not leave Santa Maria till the 24th. When they were approaching the coast of Spain, they were overtaken by another terrible storm, by which they were driven into the Tagus. By permission of the King of Portugal, Colombo landed at Lisbon, where, n'otwithstanding the jealousy of the Portuguese of foreign navigators and traders, he was received with every mark of respect. John II. accorded him an interview, and listened to the narrative of his voyage and discoveries with mingled admiration and regret. The great discoverer was so impatient to reach Spain that he remained only five days in Lisbon, and on the i$th of March arrived at Palos, from which port he had been absent seven months and eleven days. His vessel entered the harbour amidst every manifestation of wonder and delight. The batteries saluted him, the church bells rang out a noisy welcome. Through the crowded streets, the discoverers of Cuba and Hayti walked in solemn procession to the church, where they offered thanksgivings to God for the success of the enterprise and their safe return. Still more imposing was the procession formed at Barcelona when CHRISTOVAO COLOMBO. Colombo and his companions entered that city to present themselves before Ferdinand and Isabella, with the bronze-complexioned natives of San Salvador, and the trophies formed of the strange productions of the newly- discovered countries. The two sovereigns rose from their thrones to receive him, made him sit upon a chair prepared for him, and listened eagerly and attentively to his relation of his voyage and discoveries. Every mark of honour was conferred upon him, as the discoverer of a New World, and orders were given to equip, without delay, such an expedition as would enable him to take possession of the islands he had discovered, and to search for the more opulent regions which he still expected to find. It was reserved, however, for later voyagers to discover the mainland of America, and his fame, and the assurance which his discoveries gave of a vast field for westward exploration, were not long in stimulating ardent spirits to new enterprises. D 2 VASCO DE GAMA. CHAPTER V. VASCO DE GAMA'S VOYAGE TO INDIA. STRANGE as it may seem, in view of the maritime enterprise of the latter part of the fifteenth century, it was not until ten years after the return of Diaz to Lisbon, with the news of his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, that any attempt was made to avail of the discovery for the purpose of intercourse with India. On the 8th of July, 1497 the same year in which Sebastian de Cabota discovered, or rather re-discovered America Vasco de Gama sailed from the Tagus, in command of three small vessels, manned by one CAPE OF STORMS. 54 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS, hundred and sixty men, for the purpose of finding the route to India, round the cape discovered by Diaz. The vessels separated on a dark and tempestuous night, but assembled again at Cape Verde, and sailed in company for the south. After enduring very stormy weather and here it may be remarked, that, unless the early voyagers exaggerated the perils which they encountered, the meteorological conditions of the globe must have been much more unfavourable to navigation' three or four centuries ago than now they reached St. Helena on the 4th of November. So much hostility was evinced by the islanders that, after an affray with them, the little squadron weighed anchor, without obtaining the needed supplies, and proceeded on the voyage. On the evening of the i8th they were in sight of the promontory which Diaz had named the Cape of Storms, and which again seemed to merit the appellation. Contrary winds prevailed, and for two days compelled the explorers to tack that is, to steer a zigzag course, constantly shifting the sails, so as to avail as much as possible of every favourable point in the direction of the wind. " The waves," says the narrator of the voyage, " rose like mountains in height ; his ships were heaved up to the clouds, and now appeared as precipitated by circling whirlpools to the bed of the ocean. The winds were piercing cold, and so boisterous that the pilot's voice could seldom be heard, while a dismal and almost continual darkness, which, at that tempestuous season, involves those seas, added greatly to the danger. Sometimes the gale drove them to the southward, at other times 'they were obliged to stand on the tack, and yield to its fury, preserving what they had gained with the greatest difficulty. During any gloomy interval of the storm, the sailors, wearied out with fatigue and. abandoned to despair, surrounded Gama, begging that he would not devote himself and crew to so dreadful a death. They exclaimed that the gale could no longer be weathered, that everyone must be buried in the waves if they continued to proceed. The firmness of the admiral could not be shaken, and a formidable conspiracy was imme- diately formed against him ; but of this desperate proceeding he was informed by his brother Paulo. The conspirators and all the pilots were immediately put in irons, whilst Gama, assisted by his brother and the few who remained steadfast in their duty, stood night and day to the helm. Providence rewarded his heroism, and at length, on Wednesday, the 2Oth of November, all the squadron doubled this tremendous promontory." VASCO DE GAMA. 55 On the 24th a landing was made at a place called Angra del Bias, where the dusky natives seem to have been both suspicious and treacherous. The exploring party fell into an ambush, and retreated to their boats ; but, upon SHIP OF WAR AND GALLEY OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. two guns being fired from one of the ships, the natives dropped their weapons in affright and fled inland. Gama afterwards had a pillar, bearing the royal arms of Portugal, set up on the beach, to commemorate his presence there, but it was pulled down again by the natives. The little squadron then sailed away, and for several days afterwards was compelled by stormy weather to stand away from the coast. HALF- HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Land was in sight again on the nth of January, and, after coasting it for some distance, two of Gama's officers went ashore, and had an interview of the king probably a chief of one of the Kaffir tribes of the country around Delagoa Bay. Presents were made to this dusky potentate, who, in return, regaled his visitors with a supper of boiled fowls and millet. Leaving this VIEW OX THE MOZAMBIQUE COAST. place, the expedition sailed fifty leagues beyond Sofala, where, on the 24th, Gama ascended a wide river, which must have been one of the mouths of the Zambesi. The natives of this region received the adventurers hospitably, and evinced no surprise at the size of their ships, which, their chiefs told Gama, were not larger or otherwise different to some which they had seen before. What ships of European construction they could have seen previously is a VASCO DE GAM A. 57 mystery which has never been elucidated, and upon which our researches enable us to throw no light. Two of the native chiefs went on board Gama's vessel, and evinced a disposition to trade, offering some pieces of cotton cloth jn exchange for beads and knives. Gama set up a mark on the beach to commemorate his visit, and, after a stay of sufficient length for the requisite repairs of the little U- ' - - ^ CALICUT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. fleet, continued his voyage. Some islands were passed, which, as the coast appears to have been " hugged," as sailors say, very closely, were probably the cluster of islets southward of Cape Delgado, the Comoro group lying nearly half a degree farther eastward. There being much sickness aboard, the vessels anchored before Mozambique, according to the narrator of the voyage ; but as the town of that name is considerably to the southward of the islands mentioned, we are probably to understand merely a town on the 58 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Mozambique coast. The natives are described as speaking Arabic, and having a considerable trade with India. Only the smallest vessel of the expedition could enter the harbour, the others lying at anchor outside. No difficulty was experienced in procuring the supplies that were needed, and as much disposition to trade was evinced . as at the mouths of the Zambesi. But as soon as the Sheik discovered that the strangers were not worshippers of the Prophet of Mecca, his civility under- went a perceptible diminution, and the people regarded them with mistrust and aversion. Instead of the two pilots that had been promised, only one was sent, and the permission to take water was withdrawn. Fresh water being essential to the success of the enterprise, Gama ordered his men to take it by force ; and the immediate consequence of their doing so was a collision. Gama then ventured to sail into the harbour, and, bringing the broadside of his vessel to the town, subjected it to a vigorous cannonade. The voyage was then resumed, with the intention of touching at Quiloa ; but our navigators ran past that port, and on the /th of April found them- selves at Mombassa. Here they experienced more of the native mistrust and treachery. One of the vessels ran upon a shoal, and an attempt was made to cut her cable. The ship being got off without much damage, they sailed again on the I3th, still creeping cautiously along the coast. On the same day a native vessel was seized, and much gold and silver found aboard her, which the captors took possession of, making the crew prisoners. In the evening they anchored before Melinda, where the natives, who are supposed to have received intelligence of the cannonade of the town on the Mozambique coast, at first declined to have any communication with them. Gama had recourse to stratagem. He ordered a native to be landed upon a small uninhabited island in the harbour ; and, on the man's plight being witnessed from the shore, some of his dusky compatriots fetched him off in a boat. He was the bearer of a letter from Gama to the king of Melinda, which, being delivered at the mud-walled palace, led to an interview. To this monarch Gama delivered his Arab prisoners, and then, having obtained some informa- tion concerning the navigation, committed his little fleet to the broad bosom of the Indian Ocean. They left Melinda on the 22nd of April, and on the 2Oth of May they anchored before Calicut, being the first European vessels that had ever entered an Indian port. Eight days elapsed before Gama received permission VASCO DE GAM A. 59 to go ashore, which he then did in great state ; and, apparently under the prevailing European delusion as to the existence of Christian States in remote regions, attended public worship in a Hindoo temple, mistaking the sculptured figure of some female divinity of the Indian Pantheon for that of the Mother of Jesus ! From the pagoda Gama went to the palace, and made presents to the king, who evinced dissatisfaction at the smallness of their value, repre- senting through his Ministers that, to a sovereign of his rank, articles of gold INDIAN IDOL CARRIED IN A CAR. and silver should have been sent. This was a bad beginning, and relations did not improve with time. The Mahometan traders used all their influence for Gama's discomfiture, and it availed to have him arrested, upon what ground does not appear. On entering into an agreement to land his cargo, he was released, and he took care not to go ashore any more. The goods landed, not without many insults to the Portuguese from the Mahometan natives and Arab traders, heavy dues were demanded, and Gama's factor and his secretary were arrested. Having sold his cargo, Gama made reprisals by seizing several persons of distinction, and putting to sea. Finding his vessels followed by an armed flotilla, he threatened to massacre his prisoners if his factor and secretary were not released ; and by this threat he obtained their liberty. But, instead of there- 60 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. upon liberating his own prisoners, he set free only a certain number. The flotilla continued the pursuit, but he kept the boats at a distance by firing his guns, and, taking advantage of a fresh and favouring gale, made his escape. His ships were attacked soon afterwards, however, by vessels supposed to be piratical, one of which was captured, and the others beaten off, and driven ashore. His dangers were even then not at an end. A native vessel brought him a message from the ruler of Goa. Gama suspected a treacherous design, and the messenger, being tortured, confessed that the intention had been to lure him to Goa, and there seize him. Confessions made under the influence of physical pain are not worth much, and the designs of the King of Goa may, or may not, have been as hostile as they were believed to have been. Then came contrary winds, with alternate storms and calms, during which Gama seems to have lost his course ; for, on the 2nd of February, when he had calculated upon being at Mozambique, he found himself at Magadoxo, which is more than sixteen degrees to the north of the former place, and far from the course to be run from Calicut for the Mozambique Channel. Vexation at the mistake, and the delay which it involved, may be presumed to have had some share in the feelings which prompted Gama to cannonade the town, the walls of which his guns considerably damaged ; but the avowed reason of the attack was, that the authorities of the place were Mahometans, and that Mahometans had been his enemies elsewhere. Continuing his voyage homeward, he arrived at Melinda, where he stayed five days, and renewed friendly relations with the king. He then proceeded to Zanzibar, where he appears to have been well received. Sickness had by this time so far reduced the number of his crews that he had not hands enough to navigate the three vessels composing his squadron, the least seaworthy of which he burned. He now ran southward with a favouring breeze as far as San Bias, and put into that port to refresh his crews. The Cape was doubled on the 2 5th of April, and then they ran north-west with a fair wind for twenty days. After leaving the Cape Verde Islands, where Paulo de Gama died, the ships encountered a severe storm ; and when the sky became clear and the sea calm, the smaller vessel had disappeared. It was surmised afterwards that her captain purposely separated from Gama, in order to reach the Tagus VASCO DE GAM A. before him ; for there, riding at anchor under the guns of Belem Castle, Gama found him on his arrival. The commercial results of this voyage were immense. It enabled the Portuguese to exercise a virtual monopoly of the trade with India for more than a century, during which the Euphrates Valley route, which it is now proposed to re-open by means of a railway, gradually fell into disuse. The southern and the eastern coasts of Africa were no longer a terra incognita, and the Sea of Darkness was disarmed of its terrors for the mariner. CHAPTER VI. THE Rr.-DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY SEBASTIAN DE CABOTA. THE discovery of the ocean route to India by Diaz and Gama, and of the islands of Cuba, Hayti, and Jamaica by Colombo, gave an impulse to maritime explorations more powerful than had ever been felt before. The first of the navigators who were stimulated to new efforts to discover a western passage to the East by the success of Colombo was Sebastian de Cabota, whose discovery of the mainland of America preceded by eighteen months that of Colombo, who only reached the great western continent on his third voyage. The fullest account which we have of Cabota's voyages is contained in the verbal relation of them which he made to Butrigarias, the Papal legate in Spain, by whom it was committed to paper. He says : "When my father departed from Venice many years since, to dwell in England, to follow the trade of merchandises, he took me with him to the city of London, while I was very young, yet having nevertheless some knowledge of letters, of humanity, and of the sphere. And when my father died, in that time when news were brought that Don Christovao Colombo had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talk in all the Court of King Henry VII., who then reigned, insomuch that all men, with great admiration, affirmed it to be a thing more divine than human, to sail by the west into the east, where spices grow, by a way that was never known before, by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing ; and understanding, by reason of the sphere, that, if I should sail by way of the north-west, I should by a shorter track come into India, I thereupon caused the king to be advertised of my device, who immediately commanded two caravels to be furnished with all things appertaining to the voyage, which was, as far as I remember, in the year 1496, in the beginning of summer. " I began, therefore, to sail towards the north-west, not thinking to find SEBASTIAN DE CABOTA. KING HENRY. VII. any other land than that of Cathay, and from thence to turn towards India ; but after certain days I found that the land ran towards the north, which was to me a great displeasure. Nevertheless, sailing along by the coast to see if I could find any gulf that turned, I found the land still continent to the fifty- 6 4 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. sixth degree under our pole. And seeing that there the coast turned towards the east, despairing to find the passage, I turned back again, and sailed down GREAT SHIP. TIME OF HENRY VIII. by the coast of that land towards the equinoctial (ever with intent to find the said passage to India), and came to that part which is now called Florida, where, my victuals failing, I departed, and returned to England, where I found SEBASTIAN DE CABOTA. great tumults among the people, and preparation for war in Scotland ; by reason whereof there was no more consideration had to this voyage. " Whereupon I went to Spain, to the Catholic King and Queen Elizabeth, who, being advertised what I had done, entertained me, and at their charges furnished certain ships, wherewith they caused me to sail to discover the coasts of Brazil, where I found an exceeding great and large river named at AMELIA ISLAND, OFF THE COAST OF FLORIDA. this present Rio de.la Plata, that is, the River of Silver, into which I sailed, and followed it into the land more than six score leagues, finding it every- where very fair, and inhabited with infinite people, which with admiration came running daily to our ships. Into this river run so many other rivers that it is in a manner incredible." The reverend reporter of this relation, or some one of his transcribers, translators, or printers, has evidently made a mistake as to the latitude E 66 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. reached by Cabota in his northward exploration. He appears, according to a contemporary account, presently to be mentioned, to have sailed from Bristol ; and to have found that the coast "turned towards the east" he must have sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and. partly through the Straits of Belle Isle, from the northern opening of which the coast of Labrador bends A CREEK IN NEWFOUNDLAND. to the west. It is only between Shekatika Bay and the point just mentioned that the coast -runs eastward, and the point at which it begins to do so is about the fifty-first parallel, instead of the fifty-sixth. Cabota says nothing in this narrative of his discovery of Newfoundland, which is attributed to him by Hakluyt, on the strength of a Latin note upon "the map of Sebastian Cabot, cut by Clement Adams, concerning his dis- SEBASTIAN DE CABOTA. covery of the West Indies, which is to be seen in her Majesty's privy gallery at Westminster, and in many ancient merchants' houses." The following is the translation of this note, just as it is given in the tlacklctttr edition of Hakluyt's collection of voyages, in the library of the British Museum : "In the yere of our Lord 1497 John Cabot and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set out from Bristol) discouered that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24 of June, about flue of the clocke NATIVE OF LABRADOR. hi the morning. This land. He called Prima vista, that is to say, First seen, f because as I suppose it was that part whereof they had the first sight from sea. That island, which lieth out "before the land, he called the island of vS. Jolui upon this occasion, as I thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of Jolin the Baptist. The inhabitants of this island vse to weare beasts' skinnes, and haue them in as great estimation as we haue our finest garments. In their warres they vse bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, woodden clubs, and slings. The soile is barren in some places, and yieldeth little fruit, but it is E 2 68 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. full of white bcares, and stagges farre greater than ours. It yieldeth plenty of fish, and those very great as seals and those which commonly we call salmons. There are soles also aboue a yard in length ; but especially there is great abundance of that kinde of fish which the sauages call baccalaos" Confirmatory evidence of this discovery is -furnished by Fabian, who says : " This year also were brought unto the king three men taken in the New-Found Land that before I spake of, in William Purchas's time, being mayor. These were clothed in beasts' skins, and did eat raw flesh, and spake such speech that no man could understand them, and in their demeanour like to brute beasts, whom the king kept a time after. Of the which two years after I saw two apparelled after the manner of Englishmen in Westminster Palace, which that time I could not discern from Englishmen till I learned what they were." It is to be regretted that we have no more details of Cabota's voyages, especially of his South American explorations, in. which he appears to have anticipated Vincent Yanez Pinzon (who was the pilot of one of the ships of which the first expedition of Colombo consisted) in the discovery of Brazil, and Juan Diaz de Solis in the ascent of the Rio de la Plata. It was not the practice of Governments in those days to make known the geographical discoveries made by navigators in their service, and hence the doubts and contentions which have arisen to priority when two or more voyagers have claimed the honour of having discovered land unknown before. The discovery of Brazil was for a long time attributed to Cabral, but there is no doubt that Pinzon preceded him, while it is probable that Cabota was the first to explore the entire coast. CHAPTER VII. THE ANTARCTIC EXPLORATIONS OF AMERIGO DE VESPUCCI FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. THE polar seas have, in all ages, been regarded with mingled feelings of curiosity and awe ; and the great southern ocean was shrunk from by seamen long after the seas within the Arctic Circle had been navigated and explored. Arabic chronicles record that, towards the middle of the twelfth century, eight bold mariners sailed to discover the limits of the " Sea of Darkness," but heard from the natives of an island touched at such terrifying reports of the horrible gloom that continually overspread those waters, that they abandoned the enterprise. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, two Genoese navigators sailed with the same design, and were never heard of afterwards. The merit of the earliest Antarctic explorations belongs to Amerigo de Vespucci, who sailed as pilot with Hojeda on a voyage of discovery com- menced in 1499, an d> after two voyages in the Spanish service, undertook, with the support of King Emmanuel of Portugal, the daring project of advancing as near as possible to the South Pole. Three small vessels com- posed the expedition, which sailed in May, 1501 ; and, after sixty-seven days' sailing, made the coast of Brazil. " This long run," says Vespucci, " we made in great distress, continually beaten by rain and tempests, attended for six weeks with so thick a darkness, that we all gave ourselves up for lost. Our pilots were at their wits' end, not knowing in what part of the world we were. But the skill I possessed in astronomy and cosmography helped me to direct AMERIGO DE VESPUCCI. 7 o HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. our course, and my success increased the crew's confidence in me, as a very extraordinary person." Sailing along the coast, after the manner of the old voyagers, seldom losing sight of the land, going ashore occasionally, and lying a month at anchor to refresh, Vespucci at length " passed the tropic of Capricorn, and ICEBERGS IN iHE SOUTHED OCEAN. brought the North Pole star below the horizon. We then began to regulate our course by the stars of the southern hemisphere, which we found larger and brighter than those of the northern." He boasts that he was the first man who had seen the constellation called the Southern Cross. In April, 1502, they had reached the fifty-second parallel of south latitude. " Here," continues Vespucci, " the sea ran so high, that the whole crew AMERIGO DE VESPUCCI. expected to parish, it being now winter in those parts, and the nights more than fifteen hours long. On the ist day of April, I discovered a Terra Australis, which we coasted for twenty leagues. We found it all a bold shore, without seeing any port or inhabitants. Here we found it so cold that none of us could endure it, and the fog so thick that we could not see from the one ship to the other. The captain, alarmed at the dangers the ships ran CAPE HORN. in those seas, resolved to return towards the equator ; and lucky it was he did so, for on the two following days the storm was so violent that, had we continued our intended course, in all probability the squadron would have been lost in thick fogs during those long nights." The explorers were probably, when they turned their vessels northward, somewhere between the Falkland Islands and the coast of Patagonia. The discovery by Balboa, from a peak in New Grenada, of the Pacific HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Ocean renewed the spirit of quest for the western passage to the East, and numerous abortive attempts were made by Spanish and Portuguese navigators to find a water route from one ocean to the other. De Solis thought he had FERDINANDO DE MAGALHAEN. discovered the much desired passage when he sailed up the broad estuary of the La Plata the year after the Pacific had been seen by Balboa; but a melancholy catastrophe brought his voyage and his life to an abrupt termina- tion, he and five of his crew being killed and eaten by the barbarous natives. FOREST IN THE ISI.E OF TENERIFFE. 74 HALF- HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. The attempt was renewed in 1519, when Ferdinando de Magalhaen was appointed to the command of an expedition fitted out by order of Charles V. A Portuguese gentleman by birth and a soldier by profession, Magalhaen had served with the expedition that brought Ormus, Goa, and Malacca under Portuguese rule ; but, his scheme of maritime discovery beyond the great continent discovered by Cabota being slighted by his own sovereign, he went to Spain, and submitted it to Charles V. That potent ruler was pleased with the idea of discovering the rich spice islands known to exist beyond India, and, besides appointing Magalhaen to the command of an expedition for that purpose, invested him with the insignia of knighthood. The expedition, which consisted of five vessel ;, the largest of which did not exceed a hundred and twenty tons burthen, sailed from Cadiz on the loth of August, 1519. The Island of Teneriffe was reached on the 2nd of September, and from thence they steered for Rio de Janeiro, where they took in fresh water and provisions. On arriving in Port St. Julian, a council of officers and pilots was held to consider their means and prospects, when nearly every voice was raised against proceeding. Magalhaen determined, however, to winter in the port, and gave orders for the provisions to be issued under allowance; "whereupon," says Herrera, " the crews, on account of the great cold, begged that, since the country was found to extend towards the Antarctic Circle, without showing hope of finding a cape, or any strait, and as the winter was setting in with severity, and several men had died of cold and want, that he would increase the allowance, or return to Spain ; representing that it was not the king's intention that they should seek out what was impossible, and that it was enough that they had reached a point farther to the south than had been reached by any explorers who had preceded them ; adding that, if they proceeded farther towards the Pole, some furious wind might drive them where they could not get away, and so all would perish. " Magalhaen, who was fertile in resources under all circumstances, said that he was determined to fulfil what he had undertaken or to perish in the attempt. The king had ordered the voyage which was to be performed, and, at all events, he was to sail on till he discovered the end of the land, or some strait, which they could not fail of doing ; and, though wintering seemed to be attended with difficulties, there would be none, when spring came, in pro- ceeding on their voyage, discovering the coasts of the continent within the FERDINAND O DE MAGALHAEN. 75 Antarctic Circle, where they must find a region in which the day lasted three months. He was astonished, he said, that any men, and especially Spaniards, could be so ignoble." These arguments, or the appeal to their national pride, prevailed for the time, and the preparations for wintering proceeded. The severity of the weather, and the hardships which had to be endured, caused discontent to be renewed, however, during the winter, and it grew until it ripened into a formidable conspiracy, the ringleaders of which were Cartagena, the vice-commander of the flag-ship ; the captains of two of the other ships, named Mendoza and Quezada ; and a priest named Revora. Warned by Serrano, another of his captains, of the plot that had been con- cocted, the brave adventurer had Mendoza slain and forty of the mutineers arrested by the crew of the flag-ship, and determined to strike terror into the hearts of all the discontented and insubordinate spirits whom he led. Quezada was condemned to be hanged, with a youth of his crew : " and because they had no executioner, the boy, to save his own life, accepted of the office, and hung his master, and quartered him." The dead body of Mendoza was beheaded and quartered, and the ghastly remains exposed upon the shore. The mutiny was thus brought to an end. In the spring of 1520 Serrano was dispatched to reconnoitre the coast to the southward, and had the misfortune to have his ship wrecked in a severe storm, at the mouth of the river Santa Clara. The officers and crew took to the boats, but they endured such terrible hardships from want of food, and the severity of the weather, before they could regain Port St. Julian, that they became so emaciated as scarcely to be recognised by their comrades. It was not until the end of August, or (according to another account) the beginning of October, that the fleet again put to sea, leaving Cartagena and the priest on the shore. The miserable culprits were abundantly supplied with pro- visions, but they were never seen or heard of afterwards, and probably fell victims to famine, or to the ferocity of the savages. Cape Virgin was reached at the end of October, and there the adventurers beheld the opening of a wide channel, which ran so far into the land as to leave no doubt that they had arrived at the object of their search. A council was then held, at which, on the representations of the pilots that larger and better furnished vessels were required for the unknown navigation before them, all but Magalhaen advocated returning to Spain. He told the council that, " even if he thought they should be reduced to eating the hides on the HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. yards, he would go on to discover what he had promised the emperor ; for he trusted God would assist them, and bring them to a good conclusion." The council broke up in moodiness and discontent, and the pilot and purser of one of the ships murdered the captain, and turned her head towards the north. Magalhaen pursued the refractory crew, vowing condign punishment, but he VIEW IN THE STRAITS OF MAGALHAEN. was unable to overtake the runaway ship, and at length abandoned the pursuit. Cape Virgin was then rounded, and the fleet, now reduced to three ves- sels, entered the strait which still bears the great navigator's name. " While sailing along," says Herrera, " they observed that the land on their left was very rugged and cold ; and, because they saw at night many fires, it was named ' Terra del Fuego.' " Braving all the dangers of an intricate and FERDINANDO DE MAGALHAEN. 77 unknown navigation, Magalhaen at length, on the 2/th of November, " sailed into the great South Sea, giving infinite thanks to God that He had per- mitted him to discover the passage so much desired, and so much sought after, \vhereby the memory of this excellent captain shall be eternally celebrated." Although Magalhaen had been anticipated by Balboa in the discovery of the Pacific, he was the first by whom its waters were navigated. Looking at A FUEGIAN FAMILY. the chart of that immense expanse of ocean, dotted so thickly with islands, it would seem that the discoveries to be made by the first explorers of that fifth part of the globe must be numerous. But, by a strange caprice of fortune, the course followed by Magalhaen for more than three thousand miles was one in which only two very small islands were seen, and those uninhabited. For nearly four months he held on his trackless way, with dispirited and famished crews ; and at length, on the 6th of March, 1521, sighted the group of islands now known as the Ladrones, which name was given them by Magalhaen, on account of the pilfering propensities of the natives. 78 HALF-HOURS W7TH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. These islands would have been pleasant and welcome places of refresh- ment for the debilitated crews of Magalhaen's little fleet, but for the constant thefts committed by the natives, and which obliged him, after threatening ii> vain, first to fire his ordnance, in the hope of frightening them, and after- wards to burn some of their huts, to sail in quest of islands where the laws of ATTACK ON THE FLEET. property were held in greater respect. He landed at Zamul on the loth, on the following day at Hummuna. Many small islands, fringed with palms, were afterwards passed, and at some of these the explorers obtained goats, poultry, and fruit, which were a great boon to them in the condition to which they were then reduced. On the 7th of April they cast anchor off the island of Zubut, where a FERDINANDO DE MAGALHAEA. 79 demand of tribute was made and refused, but withdrawn when the king learned Magalhaen's nationality, the fame of the Portuguese, who had not long before taken Calicut by assault, having spread to those scattered islands that dot the Indian Ocean from their new settlement in Malacca. The king, his brother, and the queen embraced Christianity, in name at least, and com- manded all the Zubutese to be baptised. Idolatry was abolished by edict, and in eight days not a vestige of paganism remained, except in the hearts of the olive-tinted islanders, where it is to be feared it was as rife as, ever. From Zubut the explorers steered to the neighbouring island of Mathan, where also tribute was demanded by the king, and refused by Magalhaen. Here, however, hostilities ensued, and Magalhaen, confronting, at the head of a handful of men, an overwhelming force of the natives, was killed by a spear-thrust in the head and a wound from a poisoned arrow. His crew were unable to recover the body of their brave commander, and forced to retreat to their boats. Serrano, who succeeded him in the command of the expe- dition, received a conciliatory message from the king, by which he was unfortunately induced to accept an invitation to an entertainment ashore, at which he was treacherously seized, and the officers who accompanied "him all massacred. Ransom was demanded of the Spaniards for their commander, but they declined to have an}4 dealings with the Mathanese, or to place any confidence in their promises, and sailed away under the command of an officer named Camo. The fate of the unfortunate Serrano was never satis- factorily ascertained. Steering a westerly course, several of the small islands of the Philippine group were touched at, and supplies of fresh meat, rice, and fruit obtained from the natives, by whom the explorers were hospitably received. From Puloan, the largest of the islands visited, they sailed southward, still hoping to discover those rich spice-bearing islands which were the ultimate object of the expedition. Weathering a severe storm, they came in sight of the northern coast of Borneo, where they were attacked by a hostile fleet of "proas," a very fleet-sailing kind of boat, so named by the Spaniards from their peculiarity of having the stem and the stern- made alike, so that, by merely shifting the sail, they can change their course without turning round. The flotilla was dispersed by a broadside or two, and Camo, changing his course to the north-east, arrived off Mindanao, the southermost of the two principal islands of the Philippine group. Here another storm was en- Co HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. countered, and the expedition ran to the southward again, arriving at Tidore, one of the most northerly of the Molucca Islands, on the 8th of November. At last tr^ey were among the coveted spice islands, the acquisition of which had been promised to Charles V. The soft south breeze wafted to them the aroma of the nutmeg and the clove. The Spaniards landed, and found the MINDANAO. natives hospitable and disposed to traffic with them. Supplies of fresh meat and fruit were obtained, and cloth and glass bartered, to the satisfaction of both parties, for spices, sugar, and sago. Sailing from Tidore, and still running southward, they passed several small islands, and arrived at Timor, a large island midway between Celebes and the north-west coast of Australia. If they had continued their southward course they would have anticipated those Spanish and Portuguese explorers FERDINANDO DE MAGALHAEN. 81 who are supposed to have discovered that vast island before it was seen by Torres, its north and west shores being laid down on maps of the middle of the sixteenth century, which are preserved in the British Museum. But Camo deemed the object of the expedition accomplished, and ordered the course to be changed to the south-west. NATIVES OF TIMOR MEETING BY MOONLIGHT. Crossing the broad bosom of the Indian Ocean, and steering for the Cape of Good Hope, they ran so far to the southward that they missed it, and were greatly distressed for food. They were afraid to put into any of the Portuguese settlements to procure supplies ; and, it would appear, not without F 8a HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. reason, for when dire distress drove them at length to San Jago, one of the Cape Verde Islands, thirteen of them were seized and thrown into prison. Only thirty-three officers and men now remained, and these gaunt and hollow-eyed shadows of their former selves weighed anchor with difficulty,. and getting safe out of port, ran to the north-east. Favoured with a fair wind, a tolerably quick passage for those days was made ; and on the /th of September, 1521, the two remaining vessels for one had been burned, because their numbers were so much reduced that they could not man all the ships cast anchor in the harbour of Cadiz. This voyage was remarkable, not only for the discovery of an ocean route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but also as being the first circumnavigation of the globe. The loss of a day in the reckoning, which occurred for the first time in the history of navigation, caused much surprise at the time, and puzzled the most learned men of the age to account for it. Pigafetta, a contemporary historian, says of Magalhaen and his companions : " These were mariners who surely merited an eternal memory more justly than the Argonauts of old. Their ship, too, deserved far better to be placed among the stars than the ship Argo ; for, taking her departure from the Straits of Gibraltar, and sailing through the great ocean towards the South Pole, and then turning west, followed that course so long that, passing round, she came to the east, and thence again to the west, not by sailing back, but proceeding constantly forward ; so compassing the globe, until she marvellously regained! her native country, and the port from which she departed." CHAPTER VIII. THE AFRICAN EXPLORATIONS OF FRANCISCO DE ALVAREZ. ABOUT 1518, there arrived in Lisbon one Matthew, who represented himself to be the envoy of the mythical Prester John, whom the popular belief had transferred from Central Asia to Abyssinia, then called Ethiopia. He gave such glowing accounts of the riches and fertility of the country as induced King Emmanuel to dispatch, on a mission to Prester John, Don Eduarda Galuano, a gentleman of his household, who had been secretary to his twa immediate predecessors on the throne. Galuano was accompanied by a priest named Francisco dc Alvarez, a translation of whose narrative of the embassy was found by Purchas among the papers left unedited by Hakluyt. The translator is unknown, but Purchas, whose voluminous collection of voyages and travels was published in 1625, says that he satisfied himself of its accuracy by comparing it with the version of Ramusio. Galuano dying at the island of Comoro, without having accomplished his mission, Diego Lopez de Scg'ueira, governor of the Portuguese possessions in Asia, prepared a fleet, and sailed into the Red Sea, arriving on the i6th of April, 1520, at an island which Alvarez calls Maczua, and is probably to be identified with Massowah. Alvarez and the Abyssinian envoy accompanied this expedition, and a few days after their arrival at Maczua received a visit from seven monks, whose monastery was situated about twenty miles from a town called Ercoco, probably Argeego. These monks, who wore crosses of black wood, expressed much gratification at the meeting ; and a few days afterwards, Barnagasso, the chief of that part of the country, came to Ercoco, and welcomed the Portuguese in the name of the Emperor of Ethiopia, whom Alvarez terms Prester John, though he seems to have been doubtful from the first of Matthew's veracity and good faith. Barnagasso is probably a misnomer, the result of a blunder, the low- lying district bordering the Red Sea being called Baharnagash. Roderigo 8 4 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. de Lima being appointed ambassador in place of Galuano, a considerable party set out from Ercoco on the 3Oth of April, to proceed into the interior in quest of Prester John. The first day's journey was through a barren country, parched by the tropical heat to such an extent that the beds of all the streams were dry. On the second day they began to ascend rugged mountains, covered with thick forests, in which doves cooed and many kinds VIEW ON THE UPPER NILE. of feathered warblers made melody, but which were said to be infested with lions and tigers. As they went onward, the mountains became steeper and more rugged, and the forests "so dark and fearful that spirits would have been afraid to pass them. We saw many savage and cruel beasts at noonday, passing this way and that way, without being any whit afraid of us. For all this, we went forward, and began to find people of the country, which kept their fields that were sown with millet, and came far to sow it upon FRANCISCO DE-ALYAREZ. these high and craggy mountains. We saw also many goats feeding, and herds of goodly oxen." The priest's suspicions of Matthew were increased by his seeming wish to AN OLD MAP OF AFRICA BY JUAN DE LA COSA, THE PILOT OF CHRISTOVAO COLOMBO. lead them by the most difficult ways, an*d by his representing the warden of a monastery in the mountains as a bishop. When the embassy had reached the monastery of St. Michael de Iseo, and were resting there after their 86 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. toilsome journey, Matthew told them that he had written to the Court of Prester John, to the Empress Helena, and to the Patriarch, from whom answers could not be received under forty clays. He counselled them, there- fore, to remain where they were, representing that this course was further recommended by the approach of the wet season, during which the)- would not be able to travel. This advice they found themselves constrained to ETHIOPIAN" WOMEN. ^^ act upon, and Alvarez made use of the time to acquaint himself with the products of the country, and the manners and customs of the people. The interior seemed more populous than the coast regions, but the people had not made much progress in civilisation. The poorer classes wore scarcely any clothing ; and, though they professed Christianity, their religion was scarcely recognisable as such by our pious traveller. It must have seemed scandalous in his eyes tliat the priests were married, and that they recognised as the head of their Church neither the Pope nor the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Abyssinian Church branched off, in the fourth FRANCISCO DE ALVAREZ. 87 century, from the Coptic, which had originated shortly before in one of the heresies that divided the Greek or Eastern Church very soon after the great schism out of which it arose. Corruption followed corruption until the Christian doctrine was so much obscured and deformed that European travellers. could recognise the Abyssinians as co-religionists only by their use of the cross and their invocation of saints. D.uring their stay at the monastery, several of the party were sick, and Matthew died, first making his will in Ethiopic and Portuguese, and receiving the sacrament. On the I5th of June, they left the monastery, and travelled for three days over craggy mountains, interspersed with woods of the wild olive, in which they saw troops of baboons. On the third day they arrived at Barua, which was the chief town of Barnagasso's province, and evidently the town now called Dobarua, situated on a tributary of the Lidda ; but that chief had left it the day before their arrival, and when the Portuguese envoy followed him, the interview which he requested was refused, and the travellers were lodged in a goat-shed, with no other beds than hides laid upon the ground. On the following day, however, Barnagasso gave the ambas- sador an audience, and they dined together, after which Lima was told how he might find his way to the Court of Prester John ; but the chief could not furnish the travellers with mules, which they were told they must buy. They left Barua in very tempestuous weather, and journeyed to Temei, a town twelve miles distant, standing upon a lofty eminence, commanding a panoramic view of the country around, within a circle of between forty and fifty miles. They took their departure from Temei on the 3rd of August, "with great thunders and a terrible storm of rain, and travelled for three miles through fields. Then we began to descend by very rough and steep ways, and at evening lodged in a churchyard, where we were in great fear of the tigers, and marvelled much at the winter storms. Departing thence the next day, we travelled over craggy mountains, full of woods, and came to a river, which, because it was winter, was swollen, and very dangerous to pass. It is called Marabo, and runs into the Nile." The Mareb is here meant, which rises in the mountains of Taranta, and flows into the Atbara, a tributary of the Nile. Here they heard a great noise of drums, and found that a captain had brought more than six hundred men to carry their baggage. There was great contention about crossing the river, but at last this was arranged, and the natives set off at such a rate that the Portuguese had 88 H ALL-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. some difficulty in keeping up with them. At night they bivouacked, making large fires to scare away wild beasts ; and on the following day resumed their journey over high and craggy mountains, which seemed to reach the skies. They halted at Abafacens, where they found the finest church they had yet seen in the country, with a large castle of hewn freestone, standing amidst groves and gardens. Our travellers came next to St. Michael's, two days' journey from Caxumo, which was said to have been the capital of Sheba, and is therefore readily to be identified with Axum. The country became more and more fertile as they proceeded, and the inhabitants of the villages thickly scattered over it cultivated barley, millet, and many kinds of vegetables and fruit. They rested generally at the monasteries, which appear to have been numerous, and, with the churches, are the chief buildings which are described. Beyond Corcora they entered a very pleasant region, succeeded by one of those great forests which the worthy priest so much dreaded on account of the wild beasts with which they were infested. Not being very well acquainted with the geographical distribution of the carnivora, he gave credence to the story that tigers were among the prowlers of the forests ; but he seems to have known enough of these animals to be aware that the beasts by which the party were twice set upon were not tigers, though he did not know what they were, calling them " a sort of tigers." They were probably hyenas, which are numerous in most parts of Africa, and often make night terrible with their hideous howlings. After experiencing a violent storm, by which they were overtaken suddenly in the mountains, the embassy, en me in sight -of Gondar on the i8th of October. But with their arrival at their destination the great mediaeval myth was dissolved. Prester John, they now learned, was a familiar name common to the Emperors of Abyssinia ; and when, two days after their arrival at the capital, the ambassador was admitted to an audience, the dusky potentate disavowed Matthew, and showed himself much more solicitous about the presents he expected to receive than about the spiritual things concerning which Alvarez had hoped to find him anxious. War with Nubia being on the point of commencing, he. evinced great interest in the construction of European arms, which, however, he appears to have considered no better than those in the hands of his soldiers. The Turks and the Moors, he said, had guns as good as those of the Portuguese. - 90 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. From the Abuna, as the Bishop of Gondar is called, our travellers learned that Matthew was a merchant, and by no means the saintly person he had induced them to believe him. His voyage to Lisbon had been undertaken with a view to the promotion of commercial intercourse between Portugal and the western ports of the Red Sea ; but, though the emperor was cognisant of it, and approved its object, it was not made at his suggestion or request. Lima and his party remained six years in Abyssinia. They returned to Ercoco by the route they had travelled before, and sailed from that port on the 28th of April, 1526. The vessel in which they embarked touched at Aden and Ormus, and then they steered for Goa, from which port the embassy returned to Lisbon. CHAPTER IX. THE DISCOVERIES OF GIOVANNI. DE VERAZZANO. ECCLESIASTICAL policy and doctrinal prepossessions had probably no small share in prompting that curiosity in political geography, the bull by which Pope Alexander VI. decided that a line drawn from the North Pole to the south, a hundred leagues west of the Azores, should be the dividing line between the possessions of Spain and Portugal, to which two Powers all the countries of the New World, then known or thereafter to be discovered, should belong. The English, the Dutch, and the French, had not as yet begun to distinguish themselves in the field of maritime discovery ; but the arrogance and jealousy displayed by the Spaniards and Portuguese towards other nations, on every possible occasion, acted as a powerful impetus to rivalry. The decision of the pope elicited from Francis I. the remark, " Since the kings of Spain and Portugal divide the whole world between them, I wish that they would show me the will of our father Adam, that I might see in what terms he has constituted them sole heirs." Determined to obtain a share of the territorial spoils of the New World, he ordered four vessels to be fitted out " to discover new lands," and appointed to the command a Floren- tine captain of good repute, named Giovanni de Verazzano. The expedition had scarcely sailed when a violent storm arose, and two of the ships were driven, by stress of weather, on the coast of Brittany. Some time was lost in repairing the damage done to them, and in the end only one ship pro- ceeded on the voyage, the reason for this limitation of the squadron not being discoverable. Verazzano, having again put to sea, steered for Madeira, where he arrived on the 1 7th of January, 1524. On leaving this island he sailed westward, with a fair wind, running five hundred leagues in twenty-five days ; but, on 92 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. - the 2Oth of February there arose " as sharp and terrible a tempest as ever any sailors suffered." When the gale had subsided they again had fair weather and a favouring wind, and in the next twenty-five days ran four hundred leagues. The Spaniards concealed their maps and charts so jealously that the navigators of other nations, who followed in the tracks of Colombo and Cabota, had to find their way, as those who had gone before them had done, a fact which seems to be forgotten by those who speak of the illustrious Genoese as having pointed out the way to the New World, and which deprives of its point the oft-told story of the navigator and the egg. Verazzano, having no map or chart of the coasts of America, held a due westerly course, until he beheld what must have been the coast of Florida, which he describes as "a new land, never before seen of any man, either ancient or modern ; and at the first sight it seemed somewhat low, but being within a quarter of a league of it, we perceived by the great fires that we saw by the sea coast, that it was inhabited, and saw that the land stretched to the southwards. In seeking some convenient harbour wherein to anchor, and to have knowledge of the place, we sailed fifty leagues in vain, and seeing the land to run still to the southwards, we resolved to return back again towards the north, where we found ourselves troubled with the like difficulty. At length, being in despair to find any port, we cast anchor upon the coast, and sent our boat to shore, where we saw a great number of people, which came to the beach, and seeing us approach fled away, but sometimes would stand still, and look back, beholding us with great admiration ; but afterwards, being assured by signs that we made to them, some of them came near the beach, seeming to rejoice very much at the sight of us, and marvelling greatly at our apparel and our whiteness, showed us, by signs, where we might commodiously come to land with our boat, offering us also of their victuals to eat." The shore of this hitherto unknown land was sandy, and indented by many creeks and small rivers, bordered by thick and extensive woods. Sailing northwards, to avoid coming into collision with the Spaniards, the explorers came to another land, " much more fair, and full of woods." Twenty of the crew landed, and penetrated about six miles into the country. The copper-coloured natives, who wore deer-skins and head-dresses of feathers, fled from them into the woods ; and when they came to a village of wigwams, they fi saw only one old woman, with a young maid of eighteen GIOVANNI DE VERAZZANO. 93 or twenty years old, which, seeing our company, hid themselves in the grass for fear. The old woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and behind her neck a child of eight years old. The young woman was laden likewise with as many. When our men came to them the women cried out, and the old one made signs that the men were fled into the woods. To quiet them, and to win their favour, our men gave them such victuals as they had with them, which the old woman received thankfully, but the young one threw them disdainfully on the ground. They took a child from the old woman to bring to France, but going about to take the young woman, who was very beautiful and of tall stature, they could not bring her to the sea, for the great outcries that she made, especially as they had great woods to pass through, and were far from the sea." The explorers made a stay of three days at this place, and then continued the voyage northward, sailing only by day, and anchoring nightly, on account of their unacquaintance with the navigation. After sailing about a hundred leagues farther, they came to " a very pleasant place, among steep little hills, from which there ran down to the sea an exceeding great stream, which within the mouth was very deep ; and any great ship may pass up, laden, with the tide, which we found to rise eight feet." They sailed up this river about a mile and a half, when they came to a lake about nine miles in circumference. Returning to the ocean, they sailed east fifty leagues, always being in sight of land ; and discovered a triangular island, distant from the mainland about ten leagues. Fifteen leagues farther they found a good haven in forty-one degrees, and sailed in between its thickly-wooded shores. They explored the interior for a distance of five or six leagues, and found the natives civil and hospitable. Sailing from this haven on the 5th of May, they coasted eastward for fifty leagues, without losing sight of the land, and then ran northward for twice that distance. As they proceeded, they found the natives of the coast more savage, and the climate much colder. The natives of the country, who were clad in bear skins, sought to deter them from landing by savage yells and gesticulations, succeeded by a shower of arrows ; but on a gun being fired, they fled into the woods. Sailing through 'a cluster 'of islands, of which thirty-two were counted, they ran northward to the fiftieth degree of latitude, when, according to the relation subsequently made to Francis I., "having exhausted the stores, and 94 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. discovered about seven hundred leagues of new countries," they took in wood and water, and commenced the return voyage to France. How they sub- sisted, their stores being exhausted why, if we are to suppose that they obtained supplies on the coast, they attempted no further explorations we are not told. They were probably, when they turned their vessel's head homewards, off the coast of Labrador, having passed the mouth of the St. Lawrence, without being aware of their opportunity of anticipating the discoveries of Cartici; JACQUES CARTIER. CHAPTER X. THE VOYAGES F JACQUES CARTIER DISCOVERY OF CANADA EXPLORATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. TEN years subsequently to the voyage of Verazzano, a French captain, Jacques Cartier, sailed from St. Malo with two ships of sixty tons burthen, each with a crew of sixty men, with a view to further explorations in the same regions. Favoured by fair weather, he reached Cape Bona Vista, on the northern shore of Newfoundland, on the loth of May, 1584. Much ice was encountered in the bay, and he steered to the south-east, and entered the harbour of St. Catherine, five leagues from the cape. He stayed there ten days, repairing his boats, and on the 2ist sailed north-eastward, and dis- covered an island, to which he gave the name of the Isle of Birds, from the multitude of sea-birds which covered the rocks, and continually hovered about 9 6 HALF^HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. it. They appear, from the description given of them, to have been of the puffin species, and were so numerous, that large numbers of them were killed and salted for food, as a precaution against a possible dearth of provisions. Cartier continued his exploration of the coast, again falling in with ice, and discovering an island, which he places fourteen leagues from the shore, but, as he asserts that bears swam across the strait to catch birds, it must be presumed either that he was mistaken as to the distance, or as to the feat of ursine natation which he records. Perhaps the bears crossed the strait on floating ice. One of these animals was killed by the explorers, and is said to have been as big as a cow, and to have afforded meat as good as that of a calf of two years old. We have here some light thrown upon the age at which cattle were slaughtered in the sixteenth century, an ox being called a calf by Cartier at the age at which cattle are now considered fully ripe for the butcher. The ice becoming more formidable, and the weather more boisterous and inclement as they proceeded, the explorers took refuge in the harbour of Carpunt, and were detained there by ice and bad weather until the Qth of June. Then they continued their voyage, and on the following day entered a harbour, which they named Brest, for wood and fresh water. Having provided themselves with what they required, they continued their voyage, sailing among rocky islets for ten leagues, and gathering great numbers of the eggs of the aquatic fowls that resorted to them for the purpose of incubation. Next day they came to a haven, which they named after St. Anthony, and, a league or two farther, a little river, the mouth of which was opposite to two small islands. Here they found a good harbour, and, setting up a cross, called it St. Servan. A league farther to the south-west they passed more islands, and two leagues beyond these discovered the river St. James, in which a fishing vessel from Rochelle was engaged in the salmon fishery. It is a curious illustration of the care that v/as taken to guard the secrets of geographical discovery SHIP OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. JACQUES C ARTIER. 97 that a French explorer should find French fishermen in the very waters which he was surveying. A league to the westward of this harbour they discovered another, which Cartier, regarding it as " the best haven in the world," named after himself. But, commodious as this and other harbours of Newfoundland were found to be, the uninviting aspect of the interior, the sterile soil, and the inhospitable climate greatly disappointed him. SPOTTED SEAL. " If the soil were as good as the harbours are," he says, in his relation to the king, " it were a great commodity ; but it should not be called the New Land, but rather stones and wild crags, and a place fit for wild beasts, for in all the north islands I did not see a cart-load of good earth; yet I went ashore in many places, and in White Sand Island there is nothing else but moss and small thorns here and there, withered and dry. TO be brief, I believe this was the land God allotted to Cain." 98 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Returning to his ship on the I3th, he sailed again two days afterwards, and steering southward for twenty leagues came to two capes, which led him to believe that there was a strait dividing the island into two, but he ' soon convinced himself of the contrary. On the i6th he ran for thirty-five leagues in sight of wild steep hills, and next day passed several low islands. From this date to the 24th contrary winds prevailed, with darkness and thick mists. Cape St. John was passed in a dense fog, and storms and darkness impeded their progress all the following day. On three steep islands the sea- fowl, observed in such numbers elsewhere, were congregated so thickly that about a thousand were killed in an incredibly short space of time, and Cartier asserts that thirty thousand might have been killed in an hour. The explorers filled their boats with the birds, which were not likely to be thought unpalatable by seamen in an age when seals and porpoises were served at the tables of persons of rank and wealth. Five leagues to the westward they found another island, upon which a landing was made for the purpose of obtaining supplies of wood and fresh water. Cartier asserts that there was more earth on this island than he had seen on all the coasts of NeAvfoundland, and gooseberries and straw- berries grew on it in profusion. Bears and wolves were seen, and walruses were numerous on the beach. An attempt was made to capture one of these unwieldy creatures, but it eluded its pursuers by plunging into the sea. Cape St. Peter and the island of Alezai were passed on the 28th, and on the evening of the 3Oth the explorers discovered what appeared to be two islands, as seen nine or ten leagues west by south-west, but which proved to be the land about Cape Orleans. Thence they sailed forty leagues to the westward, but on the 1st of July changed their course to north-east. Storms and thick mists again troubled them, and, when they discovered a headland, they were unable to land by reason of shoals and sandbanks. The weather had now cleared, and they heard birds singing, the notes of which reminded them of the thrush, and the cooing of doves in the dark pine woods ashore. Next day they coasted the wooded shores of a bay which they named after St. Lunario, and rounded a promontory which, on account of the feelings which it awakened within them, they called Cape Hope. On the 4th of July they entered a creek, which they named after St. Martin, and remained there until the I2th. "On the 6th," says Cartier, "we saw two companies of boats of wild men going from one land to the JACQUES C ARTIER. 99 other, in number from forty to fifty, one part of which came to the point, and a great number of the men went ashore, making a great noise, and beckoning to us that we should come on land, showing us certain skins on pieces of wood. But as we had only one boat we would not go to them, but went to the other side lying in the sea ; they, seeing us fly, prepared two of their VIEW ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. boats to follow us, with which came also five more of them that were coming from the sea-side, all which approached near to our boat, dancing and making many signs of joy and mirth, as it were desiring our friendship, with many words that we understood not. We made signs to them that they should turn back, which they would not do, but with great fury came towards us, and suddenly surrounded us with their boats ; and because they would not go G 2 ioo HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. away from us, we fired two pieces among them, which so terrified them that they fled towards the point, making a great noise. Having stayed awhile, they began anew to come to us, and being near our boat we struck at them with two lances, which so terrified them, that with great haste they began to (lee, and followed us no more. " The next day part of the said wild men, with nine of their boats, came to the point and entrance of the creek, where our ships were at anchor. We, being advertised of their coming, went to the point, where they were with their boats ; but as soon as they saw us they began to flee, making signs that they came to traffic with us, showing us such skins as they clothe themselves with, which are of small value. We likewise made signs unto them that we wished them no evil ; and in sign thereof two of our men ventured to go ashore to them, and carry them knives and other iron wares, and a red hat to give to their captain. When they saw this they also came ashore, and brought some of their skins, and so began to deal with us, seeming to be very glad to have our iron wares and other things, dancing, with many other ceremonies, such as casting sea water on their heads with their hands. They gave us whatsoever they had, not keeping anything, so that they were constrained to go away naked, making us signs that they would come again next day, and bring more skins with them." Forty boats filled with Indians were during this time engaged in mackerel fishing, and Cartier gave many of the men knives, combs, and beads, with which they were much pleased, as they showed by dancing and singing. They made signs to the explorers to go ashore, and Cartier and others accepted the invitation. The women, with two or three exceptions, hid themselves, but came running from their retreat when they saw those who had ventured to remain presented by Cartier with combs and little tin bells. Eager to receive similar gifts they surrounded Cartier tumultuously, and testified their joy by singing and dancing, as each in turn received a comb, a tiny bell, or a string of glass beads. Cartier set up on a headland a cross thirty feet high, with a shield of the arms of France, and the inscription, Vive le Roy de France ! He says that the Indians " with great heed beheld both the making and setting of it up ; and as soon as it was raised we all knelt down, with our hands towards heaven, giving God thanks ; and we made signs to them, showing them the heavens, and that cur salvation dcpendcth on Him who dwelleth there, JACQUES C ARTIER. 101 CANADIAN INDIAN. whereat they showed great admiration, looking first one at another, and then upon the cross. After we had returned to our ships, their captain, clad with IO2 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. an old bear's skin, with three of his sons aad one of his brothers with him, came to us in a boat, but not so near as they were wont to do ; and there he made a long oration unto us, pointing to the cross and then to all the country about us, as if he would say that it was all his territory, and that wo should not set up a cross without his leave. His talk being ended we showed him an axe, feigning that we would give it him for his skin. Then they came INDIANS FISHING, near our ships, and one of our men took hold of the boat and suddenly leaped into it, with two or three more, who forced them, to their great astonishment, to enter our ships. Our captain assured them that they should not be harmed, and entertained them in a very friendly manner, making them eat and drink. Then we showed them by signs that the cross was set up only as a guide to the port, and that we should shortly come again, bringing a good store of iron wares and other things, but that we would take two of his children with us, and afterwards bring them back ; and so we JACQUES C ARTIER. 103 clothed two of them with shirts and coloured coats, with red caps, and put about everyone's neck a copper chain, with which they were much pleased. Then they gave their old clothes to their fellows that went back again, and we gave to each of those three a hatchet and some knives, which made them very glad. After they were gone, and had told the news to their fellows, there came to our ships six boats, with five or six men in each boat, to take leave of the two we had detained, uttering many words which we did not INDIAN HUNTING IN SNOW SHOES. understand, and making signs that they would not remove the cross we had set up." On account of the heat prevailing at that season in Canada, and which Cartier describes as being equal to that of a Spanish summer, the bay was named the Bay of Chaleur, which appellation it retains. Leaving its waters on the 1 2th, they sailed eastward eighteen leagues, when, the weather being stormy, they anchored about a league from a promontory which, in Hakluyt's translation, is called the Cape of Prato. Next day they sailed N.N.E., but, on the wind, which had abated for a time, rising again to a furious gale, 104 HALF- HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. they returned to their anchorage, and rode there till the following day. They then sailed into a river, and were detained there by storms and fogs till the 1 6th. The storm increasing in fury, and one of the ships losing an anchor, they then sailed seven or eight leagues up the river, where, having found a more secure anchorage, they remained till the 25th. On the 25th they left the river, and sailed E.N.E. On the 2Qth they saw a headland, which Cartier called Cape St. Aloys, and which he places in latitude 49 30', which is the latitude of Point Peters. On the ist of August they were at the fiftieth degree of latitude, when contrary winds and a strong ebb tide obliged them to steer to the southward. Here they found the coast fringed with bold rocks, and the current so strong that one of their boats was carried over a rock and capsized, and the ships drifted to leeward so much that a council was held to consider what should be done. As on all such occasions in the explorations of early times, there was a preponderance of opinion in favour of returning to France, and to this counsel Cartier yielded. Newfoundland was accordingly steered for, and, after encountering a storm, they anchored in White Sand Bay on the Qth. On the I5th the home- ward voyage was resumed, and, notwithstanding contrary winds, and a storm of three days' duration, the explorers arrived at St. Malo on the 5th of September. The prospect which the results of this voyage opened of further discoveries in unknown regions was so encouraging, that Francis determined to send Cartier to the St. Lawrence again. A new expedition, consisting of three ships, the largest of which did not exceed 120 tons burthen, sailed from St. Malo on the igth of May, 1535. " We sailed," says Cartier, " with a good and prosperous wind until the 20th, when the weather changed to storms and tempests, which, with contrary winds and darkness, we endured so long that our ships, being without any rest, suffered as much as any ships that ever went on seas, so that, on the 25th of June, by reason of that foul and foggy weather, all our ships lost sight one of another till we came to Newfoundland, where we had appointed to meet." Cartier's vessel reached Bird Island on the 7th of July, and next day anchored in White Sand Bay, where the other ships did not arrive until the 26th. The voyage was then continued, and on the 3ist the explorers reached Cape Thiennot, and sailed into the St. Lawrence. On the 7th of August they were off Cape Rabast, and on the following day the two Indians whom JACQUES C ARTIER. they had taken on the former voyage pointed to the left bank, and told Cartier that there was copper there, and that "this was the way and beginning of the great river of Hochelaga, and ready way to Canada, which river, the farther it went the narrower it became, even into Canada, and that then CARTIER'S MEN PREPARING TO WINTER AT ORLEANS ISLAND. there was fresh water, which went so far upward that they had never heard of any man who had gone to the head of it, and that there is no other passage but with small boats." Upon hearing this, Cartier resolved to explore the gulf, "because he would know if between the lands towards the north any passage might be dis- covered." Sailing to the north-east, he discovered a swift river, in which, his io6 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Indians told him, there were "many fishes shaped like horses," which lived in the water during the day, and slept on the shore at night. Thick fogs and contrary winds detained the ships here for three days, after which they sailed southward and discovered a wide river, full of rapids and shallows. OLD PLAN OF HOCHELAGA. Resuming his exploration of the St. Lawrence, and sailing between mountains covered with forests to the water's edge, Cartier " had notice of a certain kind of fish never before of any man seen or known. They are about the bigness of a porpoise, yet nothing like them, of body very well proportioned, headed like greyhounds, altogether as white as snow, without JACQUES C ARTIER. 107 any spot ; within which river there is great number of them, living altogether between sea and fresh water. The people of the country told us that they are very savoury and good to be eaten. Moreover, they affirm them to be found but in the mouth of that river." On the 6th of August, they discovered an island, where they saw many large tortoises ; and because filberts were abundant and fine in the woods which covered it, they called it Isle de Coudres (Anglice, Filbert Island), which name it still bears. Next day they passed fourteen islands, "where Canada beginneth," most of them small, but one, which they called Orleans Island, fifteen leagues by ten, and inhabited by Indians, who passed most of their time in fishing. Anchor- ing between the island and the left bank of the river, Cartier went ashore, and was hospitably received by the Indians, who supplied him liberally with fish and maize. A great chief named Donnacona, who arrogated to himself the title of Lord of Canada, came down to the beach, and made an oration, after which Cartier invited him to dinner, and the Indians who had accompanied the explorer to France told him of the great country to which their white companions belonged. Then the explorers sailed to the western extremity of the island, and gave knives and beads to the Indians, who received them with extravagant demonstrations of delight. Donnacona used all his art and eloquence to dissuade Cartier from continuing his exploration, and, finding his efforts ineffectual, had recourse to a singular stratagem. Three Indians were dressed " like devils, being wrapped in dogs' skins, white and black, their faces besmeared as black as coal, with horns on their heads more than a yard long." These men were secretly put into a canoe, which laid concealed in a creek, the banks of which were thickly wooded, waiting for the tide to serve their purpose. Then they drifted past Cartier's ships in the canoe, standing up, and making an oration, but without appearing to regard the anchored vessels. When they landed, Donnacona and many of his people followed them into the woods, whence the sound of loud voices was borne by the night breeze to the crews of the ships. Next day the two Indians who had been to France told Cartier that the " devils " were messengers from the Supreme Being, sent to decl?.re that the cold was so extreme in Hochelaga that all who went there would surely perish. Undaunted by this visitation, and bent on further explorations, Cartier left the two larger ships at anchor off Orleans Island, and continued the io8 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. voyage in the pinnace, sailing between thick woods, glorious in the bright tints of autumn, and animated by the presence of many kinds of birds, and by passing canoes of Indians, paddling swiftly along the shores, and in and out of the creeks. After a sail of nine days, they found the river widened so much as to appear like a great lake, while the islands clustered towards its head completed its lacustrine aspect by seeming to close it up. An BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF ST. MALO. exploration with boats resulted in the discovery of a passage between the islands, upon one of which a party landed, and found five Indians, who " had got a heap of wild rats that live in the water, as big as conies, and very good to eat." They bartered some of the animals for knives and beads, and informed the explorers that Hochelaga was three days' sailing farther. The water being low, Cartier left the pinnace at this spot, and rowed up the river in a small boat. Forty-five leagues beyond the lake, they came to the town of Hochelaga, where they were welcomed by a thousand Indians, who- JACQUES C ARTIER. 109 bartered fish and maize with them for knives and beads. Cartier's visit was the occasion of great rejoicings. Bonfires were lighted, and by their light the Indians danced and sang. Cartier did not ascend the river beyond this point, and on the 4th of October was again aboard the pinnace, which sailed next day, and on the nth reached Orleans Island. The season being so far advanced, it became necessary to winter there ; and during the next six months the crews suffered terribly from sickness -and inclement weather. The river was fast frozen, and the snow lay four feet deep on the island, and on both banks. The cold, however, was less terrible than the unknown disease by which a large proportion of the men were smitten, and from the effects of which some of them died. The Indians informed them in the spring of a remedy, which was an infusion of the leaves of a tree, supposed to be sassafras, which "wrought so well that, if all the physicians of Montpelier and Louvaine had been there, with all the drugs of Alexandria, they would not have done 90 much in a year as that tree did in six days, for it did so prevail that as many as used it, by the grace of God, recovered their health." Cartier had determined to carry Donnacona to France with him, which design was carried into execution on the 3rd of May. The Indians seeing their chief a prisoner, fled into the woods of Orleans Island, and across the river in their canoes ; but Donnacona was brought forth from Cartier's hut on the island, and, by command of his captor, informed them that he should return in a year. This somewhat calmed and pacified them, and on the 5th the expedition weighed anchor, and sailed down the St. Lawrence. Cape Race, the eastern extremity of Newfoundland, was reached on the i6th of June, and, afcer a stay there of three days, the expedition, with fair weather, arrived safely at St. Malo on the 6th of July, 1536. CHAPTER XI. THE DISCOVERIES OF FRANCISCO DE ULLOA ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA. THE discovery of America created such an eagerness to explore the new and wonderful regions beyond the great ocean that vessel after vessel left the Spanish ports, crowded with emigrants and adventurers. Cupidity combined with the love of adventure induced thousands to flock to the shores of the New World, where rumour sprinkled the sands with gems and filled the beds of the rivers with gold. After the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, that country was declared a Spanish possession, and Antonio de Mendoza was nominated viceroy and captain-general of the conquered terri- tory, to which was given the name of New Spain. Fired with the desire of making new discoveries of auriferous regions, which should make his fame as great as that of Cortez, Mendoza proposed to send an expedition along the west coast ; but Cortez regarded exploration and conquest as his own peculiar field, and variance ensued between them, ending in the return of the conqueror to Spain, to lay his complaint at the foot of the throne. Mendoza thereupon sent an exploring party to the north-west, under the direction of a Franciscan friar, named Marco de Nica ; and a few months later, on the 8th of July, 1539, dispatched from the port of Acapulco, three ships, the largest of which was only 120 tons burthen, to discover unknown lands, under the command of Francisco de Ulloa, a native of Merida. This maritime expedition, the results of which were the most important, sailed to the north-west, along a coast fringed with pleasant woods, and watered by numerous streams. As usually happened to exploring voyagers in those days, they had not left port many days when a furious storm arose, and, in the midst of the howling of the wind and the hoarse roaring of the waves, the mast of the largest ship was carried away. Ulloa was obliged, therefore, to put into the little port of San Jago, on the coast of FRANCISCO DE ULLOA. in Colima, to repair the damage, and to take in wood and water. On the 23rd of August he again put to sea, but had the misfortune to be caught by another fearful storm on the following day, when the smallest vessel, a pinnace of twenty tons, was wrecked, and the others were so terribly knocked about that he had afterwards to enter the river Guajual to refit. His ships being again in a condition to proceed on the voyage, he sailed NATIVES OK THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA. across the Gulf of California, and entered the port of Santa Cruz, on the west coast. He remained there five days, taking in water and other necessary supplies, and again crossed the gulf, passing on the voyage three small islands. On the I5th of September, he reached the mouth of a river which ran between wooded mountains, and which he named in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul. He then sailed northward for fifteen leagues, with the land on the right low and wooded, and backed by wooded hills. The mouths of two rivers wider than the Guadalquiver were passed. The natives 112 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. seemed to have concealed themselves from the observation of the explorers during the day, but they were seen on the beach at night, and many fires were observed. They sailed over a small bay, which seems to have been the one into which the river Yaqui flows, and then, turning to the north-west, and keeping NATIVES OF THE ISLANDS OFF THE COAST. the land always in sight, they discovered the river Pitnas, at the mouth of which the town of Guaymas now stands. Rounding Cape Roxo in very bad weather, they entered a harbour with two mouths, and found a weir, which the Indians had erected for the purpose of catching fish, which the explorers found abundant and good. Several kinds of aquatic birds were observed. Ulloa landed here, and ascending a hill, whence he surveyed a wide green plain, he took formal possession of the country in the name of the King oi Spain, and set up a cross on the summit of the eminence. FRANCISCO DE ULLOA. Continuing the voyage in a north-westerly direction, an island was passed, and a strait entered, in which were two smaller islands. Suddenly the pas- sage seemed stopped, by the land inclosing them on every side, and Ulloa WEAl'O.SS AND UTENSILS OF THE NATIVES. again landed, and went through the formalities of taking possession, in virtue of the right which Christian Powers then assumed of annexing to their dominions the territory of any pagan ruler which their subjects might chance to discover. H HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. "Here," he exclaimed, "'is territory enough for the conquests of many years." Turning to the south-west, they observed columns of smoke rising from the island, which at night changed to fierce eruptions of fire ; " whereupon," says the narrative translated for Hakluyt out of Ramusio, "the captain thought good that AVC should go ashore to know the certainty of these smokes and fires, himself taking ten or twelve of us in his company ; and going ashore on the island, we found that the smokes proceeded out of certain mountains and breaches of burned earth, whereout ascended into the air cinders and ashes, which mounted up to the middle region of the air in such great quantities, that we could not estimate less than twenty loads of wood to CANOE. be burned for the causing of each of these smokes, whereat we were all not a o ' little amazed. " In this island were such abundance of seals, that it was wonderful. We stayed that day and killed a great number of them, with which we had some trouble ; for they Avere so many, and aided one another so well, that it was strange to behold ; for while we were occupied in killing some of them with stones, they assembled twenty or thirty together, and, lifting themselves up, assailed us with their feet in a squadron, and overthrew two or three of our company on the ground ; whereupon, letting go those which they had in their hands, they and the others escaped us, and went into the sea. Howbeit, we killed a good store of them, which were so fat, that it was wonderful; and when we opened some of them, to have their livers, we found" certain small black stones in them, whereat we much marvelled." FRANCISCO DE ULLOA, The weather being- unfavourable for sailing, Ulloa landed on the island, and saw some of the natives, who were fishing from a raft of canes, but ran NATIVE PAINTED AND TATTOOED. away when the Spaniards landed. They were pursued, and one man, whose " clothing was nothing at all," was overtaken ; but the Spaniards could not understand a. word of his language, and, seeing that he was terribly frightened, ii n6 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. gave him some glass beads and fish-hooks, and let him go. Resuming their voyage, they were becalmed in latitude 32, and landed on a barren shore, of which they took formal possession, calling it St. Andrea. They found here some unoccupied grass-thatched huts, and tracks of human feet among the bushes, but no inhabitants were visible. At night fires were observed. On the following day they discovered a large mountainous island, and on PIROGUE. SIDE VIEW the 1 2th of October they found themselves surrounded by the land, which was always on their right. Now they had the mainland on the right, and also ahead and astern of them, and the island on their left. Two or three villages were in sight, and a canoe was drawn up in a creek. Five canoes, full of Indians, appeared, but, on being pursued, were rapidly paddled into a creek, and lost to view. The mouth of a large river was visible from the mast-head. On the following day they discovered a bay, in which were four small islands ; and, continuing their voyage, passed other small islands, and FRANCISCO DE ULLOA. 117 on the 1 8th found themselves, to their surprise, before Santa Cruz. They had coasted the shores of the Gulf of California, and returned to the port from which they had commenced the survey. After a stay of eight days at Santa Cruz, for the purpose of taking in wood and water, they sailed for the mouth of the gulf; but anchored again PIROGUE IN FULL SAIL. in the vicinity of the port, in the hope of impressing a native guide. For this purpose a party lay in ambush with mastiffs to pursue any Indians who should appear, the natives having generally shown themselves too fleet of foot to be run down by the Spaniards. After some time, two Indians were seen, but they disappeared before they were observed by the dogs, and, though the Spaniards gave chase, they were so, weary with their walk and their watch, and their progress Avas impeded so much by a luxuriant growth of wild thistles, that they were unable to overtake the flying savages, whose smooth ii8 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. bodies offered much less impediment to progress than the clothing of their pursuers. The voyage was resumed on the 29th, but they had not sailed far to the southward before the ship ran upon a shoal. She was immovable until the tide lifted her off, which it did not do until high water point had been reached, notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts that the crew could make with cables and capstans. Contrary winds then impeded the progress of the explorers, and, with storms and darkness, prevailed for eight days, to the terror and discouragement of the crew. Prone to superstition, and with imaginations easily affected by natural phenomena, the Spanish and Portu- guese mariners, of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, seem always to have entered unknown seas with feelings akin to those of timid children when entering dark rooms ; and the discoveries that were made under their flags, but chiefly under Italian direction, were due to the energy, perseverance, and strength of mind of the skilful and intrepid men by whom they were led. "On one of these nights," says the narrative before quoted, " which was very dark and tempestuous with wind and rain, because we thought we should have perished, being very near the shore, we prayed to God that He would vouchsafe to aid and save us, without calling our sins to remembrance. And straightway we saw upon the shrouds, as it were, a candle, which shone of itself, and gave a great light, whereat all the company greatly rejoiced, in such sort that we ceased not to give thanks to God. Whereupon we assured ourselves that of His mercy He would guide and save us, and not suffer us to perish ; as indeed it fell out, for the next day we had good weather, and all the mariners said that it was the light of St. Elmo that appeared, on the shrouds, and they saluted it with hymns and prayers." Science has long ago disposed of the supernatural character of lights of this kind, which, like the " Will-o'-the- Wisp " of marshy districts, and the " corpse-candle " of old churchyards, are known to arise from decaying organic matter. The light seen by Ulloa's sailors on the shrouds of the ship probably arose from putrescent fish floating on the sea. During these storms, the vessel drove between the islands of San Jago and San Felipe and the Isle of Pearls, " over against the point of California." On the Qth of November, they were on the other side of the latter island, but, owing to contrary winds, accompanied by heavy showers of rain, they sailed only ten leagues during the next six days. One of the ships became separated FRANCISCO DE ULLOA. 119 from the others, and was not seen for three days, owing, according to the report of the captain, to her having been carried away by a strong- current. On the 26th the ships were again separated by a violent storm, but were again in company when the weather became clear and the sea more.calm. On the ist of December, a party landed to fill the water-casks with fresh water, and while so engaged were attacked suddenly by armed Indians, who wounded several of the party with their arrows. The Spaniards made a gallant defence, however, and the Indians drew off, and retired to a position on a neighbouring hill. Fearing another attack, and a larger force x>f the assailants appearing to be in reserve, the Spaniards returned to their ships. Continuing the voyage to the north-west, they were, on the 4th, a hundred leagues from the point of California, which would be about 27 30'. On the nth they encountered a severe storm, in which two of the ships lost an anchor and cable each, and one of them her mizen-mast and main-sail, which was torn by the violence of the wind. On the first day of the new year, two small islands were discovered, and on the fifth two others, the larger of which received the name of the Isle of Cedars, by which it is still known. On the seventh they were off Port Delgado, but then contrary winds compelled them to run back to the Isle of Cedars. There, on a party landing, they were again attacked by Indians, who were, however, forced to retreat into the interior of the island. They remained at anchor fifteen days, and then, after taking possession of the island, with the usual formalities, resumed their voyage. Again driven back by a storm, they remained until the $th of April, when one of the ships sailed for Santa Cruz, and Ulloa, with the other two, steered once more to the north-west. Cape Enganno, which he places in 30 30', was reached, and then the wind became so persistently contrary, that he deter- mined to return to Acapulco, which port he reached in safety, having added to the stock of geographical knowledge seven degrees of latitude. CHAPTER XII. THE EXPLORING JOURNEY OF MARCO DE NICA IN NORTHERN MEXICO. ' MENTION is made in the last chapter of the exploring expedition which Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy and captain-general of New Spain, sent to the north-west, under the direction of a Franciscan friar, named Marco de Nica. This party, which left San Miguel, in the province of Culiacan, on the 7th of March, 1539, consisted, besides its leader, of another friar, whom he calls Honoratus, a negro named Stephano, and several Indians, as the aborigines of the New World have been called from the time of its discovery to the present day, as if to perpetuate the mistake of the old geographers in supposing America to be part of the continent of Asia. On the arrival of the explorers at Petatlan, the nearest place to the north-west from San Miguel, Honoratus was taken ill ; and, after waiting for him three days, the expedition proceeded without him. After leaving Petatlan, they travelled thirty leagues without any discovery or occurrence which the friar thought worthy of record. They then met with some Indians, who wore ornaments of mother-of-pearl, and informed them that pearls were obtained in abundance in the channels between numerous islands off the coast. Here and elsewhere they were received by the natives, until the misconduct of one of the party aroused resentment, with a degree of kindness and hospitality which offers a striking contrast to the cruelties and exactions of the Spaniards. They were now on the borders of a desert, which they were four days in crossing. Beyond this arid region they encountered Indians, who wondered much at their appearance, never having seen either Europeans or Africans before ; but who treated them as hospitably as the natives farther south had done. The friar learned from them that, at the distance of four or five days' journey, they would find a rich and fertile country, the people of which wore cotton garments, and adorned their ears and noses with green gems. There 122 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. - MEXICAN INDIAN CH'.EF. were great towns in that region, they said, and gold \\as there so plci..iful that the walls of the temples were covered with plates of the precious metal, MARCO DE NICA. 123 and even the ordinary vessels for household use were made of it. But, as the Indians pointed inland, and the Franciscan's instructions were to keep near MEXICAN INDIAN COY. the coast, he reluctantly went on to Vacupa, three days' journey farther to the north-west. There he rested for some days, sending on the negro and 124 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. some of the Indians, with instructions to the former to send back, in the event of his making any discovery, a wooden cross proportioned in height to the extent and richness of the discovered territory. Four days had passed without any sign being received from the negro when one of the Indians who had accompanied him returned to Vacupa, bearing a cross as high as himself. The friar had, in the meantime, gleaned from the people of Vacupa, that there were seven well-built towns in the country beyond, where turquoises were as plentiful as pebbles ; and that there was a group of thirty-four islands off the coast, abounding in gold and pearls. On hearing this, he left Vacupa, and followed in the track of the negro. At the end of a journey of three days, he came to a tall cross, which Stephano had set up to indicate the direction in which he had gone ; and learned from some Indians that, at the distance of thirty days' journey, there was a large town named Cibola. He went on for four days longer, therefore, passing through many villages, the inhabitants of which received and entertained him hospitably, and came to another desert, the crossing of which occupied four days more. He now entered a fertile and populous valley, which he was five days travelling through. The people of the villages wore loose cotton garments, and the principal inhabitants were adorned with collars of turquoises. The women decorated their ears and noses with ornaments of the same gems. Finding that the valley was bounded northward by an extensive desert, the friar rested for three days, in the course of which he learned from an Indian of more than ordinary intelligence, who was a fugitive from the wrath of the chief of Cibola, that the city was large and populous, with long streets and spacious squares and market-places, all built of stone. The inhabitants were described as wearing ornaments of gold, and having in common use in their houses vessels of the same metal. There was a broad track across the desert from the village in which the friar was sojourning to the city of Cibola ; and on this route he set out on the Qth of May. On the twelfth day of his journey over the desert, he met a messenger from Cibola, who informed him that Stephano had got into trouble there, and that a fray had taken place in which one of the Indians who accompanied him had been killed. This intelligence caused him some uneasiness, but he went on until, when within a day's journey from Cibola, he met another Indian, who told him that the negro and several cf his companions had been wounded, MARCO DE NIC A. '25 and, that the former had been lodged in prison, and was reported dead. On hearing this intelligence of the fate of those who had preceded them, the Indians who accompanied Marco de Nica began to murmur, and evinced the r v-'vY\\ n MEXICAN IDOL. greatest reluctance to proceed farther. The friar himself hesitated. He was anxious to extend his explorations farther, and unwilling to turn back on the first appearance of danger ; but he could not conceal from himself the pro- bability that his appearance in Cibola would be the signal for maltreatment, HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. perhaps for the massacre of the whole party. On reflection, he decided to go on, and at least learn the fate of Stephano and his companions, which was as yet involved in uncertainty ; but, on communicating his resolve to the Indians who accompanied him, they became insubordinate, and refused to go any farther. His expostulations induced two of them to reconsider the matter, however, and with these he went on. MEXICAN INDIANS GOING TO MARKET. Cjbola was at length full in view, at the foot of a round hill. It looked a fair city, larger than any other he had seen in the country, and the Indians told him that it was the least of the seven cities in that kingdom. Failing to glean from passing natives any tidings of Stephano and his companions, and the two Indians who were with him being unwilling to go farther, the Franciscan had a pile of large stones raised, on the top of which he planted a large cross, formally taking possession, at the same time, of the whole MARCO DE NIC A. 127 kingdom, and of the adjoining kingdoms of Totonteac, Marata, and Acus names which he had learned from the Indians on behalf of the Crown of Spain. This ceremony performed, he reluctantly turned his back upon the city of Cibola, and began to retrace his steps southward, as he states in his report to the viceroy, " with more fear than victuals." The news of the fray at Cibola probably ran before him, for he found the natives much less friendly and hospitable on his return than they had shown themselves during his journey northward, and he seems not to have considered himself quite safe until he reached San Miguel. The accounts which he had received from the Indians of the abundance of gold in Cibola and the whole region beyond the point at which he had turned back, their reports of large and populous kingdoms, and the uncertainty that existed as to the fate of Stephano and his companions, induced Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, the governor of New Galicia, to .undertake a journey to Cibola himself, with an escort of Spanish soldiers and Indian guides and attendants. This expedition was received by the natives with less favour than that of Marco de Nica, and Coronado's report to the viceroy evinces an impression, which became more decided as he proceeded, that the reports received by the Franciscan from the Indians were exaggerated, or else had been over-coloured by the friar himself. There are great discrepancies between the two narratives, as to the country beyond Cibola ; but whether they are due to the one or the other of the explorers to Indian mis- representations, or to blunders on the part of the interpreters, cannot now be ascertained. The three populous kingdoms adjoining the country around Cibola could not be found. Totonteac was described to Coronado as a hot lake, with a few houses along its shores. Acus was only a small town, and Marata was unknown. Satisfactory evidence was obtained at Cibola that Stephano had died in prison of the wounds he had received in an affray with some of the inhabit- ants. The chief men of the city told Coronado that the negro was " a wicked villain," and no Christian, for he had taken unwarrantable liberties with some of the women, and it was these outrages which had led to the fray in which he was mortally wounded. Information being received that one of the Indians of Stephano's party was detained by the chief of Cibola, a demand was made for his release. Some hesitation was shown in complying with this demand, and a serious difficulty seemed imminent ; but the chief at length yielded, 128 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. and surrendered a lad who had been Stephano's interpreter, and whom Coronado found very useful in the same capacity. This second expedition returned to San Miguel without having penetrated farther northward than Marco de Nica had done, or made any new discoveries along the coast. Modern explorations, while they have demonstrated the existence of large deposits of gold and silver in the direction of these early travels, have shown that the ancient civilisation of America was confined to the region between the tropics, and thus throw around the stories received by Marco de Nica from the natives an air of improbability. It is only in the southern provinces of Mexico that remains have been found of the temples and palaces of the era before the conquest of the country by Cortez and his successors ; and Coronado would have found, the farther he advanced, the natives fewer and fewer, and in a more and more savage condition. 9 b*\ &$y' H a&M* ^a&S&toto w. ' ^ CHAPTER XIII. SIR HUGH WILLOUGHUY'S EXPLORING VOYAGE TO THE NORTH-EAST DISCOVERY OF THE WHITE SEA BY RICHARD CHANCELLOR JOURNEY FROM ARCHANGEL TO MOSCOW. THE explorations of Cabots. and Cartier having failed to result in the wished-for discovery of a north-west passage to China and India, the Muscovy Company of London Merchants, organised for the promotion of commerce with Russia and the East, prepared in 1553 an expedition "for the discovery of Cathay and divers other regions, dominions, islands, and places unknown," by the exploration of the seas eastward of the North Cape. Three ships, the largest of which was of the burden of a hundred and sixty tons, were equipped for the enterprise, and the command was given to Sir Hugh Willoughby. The expedition sailed from Ratcliffe on the loth of May, but so slow were the movements of our ancestors in those days, and so cumbersome and imperfect the mechanical appliances of navigation, that on the 22nd we find it no farther than Tilbury. Yarmouth was reached on the 3Oth, but a northerly wind was then encountered, and the expedition, instead of anchor- ing in the roads, returned to Harwich. Starting afresh, when the wind suited, Aldborough was reached on the i6th of June ; but then the wind again became contrary, and trje ships once more returned to the mouth of the Orwell. Making a third start, Orfordness was passed again on the 23rd, and then they ran to the northward with fair winds, and on the I4th of July found themselves among innumerable little islands, in latitude 66. These must have been the group of which Donna Oe is the largest, lying off the coast of Norway. They landed on one of them, and found thirty houses, the inhabitants of which had fled to the mainland on the approach of the ships. On the 2/th the expedition entered a little haven, which Willoughby calls Stanfew, in the island of Lofoot, which, from the situation assigned it in 68, I 1 3 o HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. must have been one of the Lofoden Isles. Steering north-cast from that place, they reached the island of Seynam, in latitude 70, where the vessels were separated by a storm, and were doomed never to assemble again. OLD ILLUSTRATED MAP OF NOVA ZEMBLA. Willoughby records in his journal that he saw no land until the I4th of August, when he was in 72, and a hundred and sixty leagues north-east from Seynam. The water off the coast was so shallow, and so full of drift ice, that the land could not be reached, however, and he sailed on until the SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY. 23rd, when land was seen again. Along this coast, which was low, he sailed until the 4th of September, when he lost sight of the land, and did not see any again until the 8th. Along this coast the adventurous voyagers sailed until the I4th, "when," EXAMINING THE COUNTRY. says Willoughby in his journal, " we went ashore with our boat, and found two or three good harbours, the land being rocky and high ; but as for people we could see none. The I5th we ran still along the coast, until the 1 7th ; then the wind being contrary unto us, we thought it best to return to the harbour we had found before, howbeit we could not accomplish our desire that day. The next day, being the i8th of September, we entered the haven, I 2 I 3 2 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. and there came to anchor in six fathoms. This haven runneth into the main about two leagues, and is in breadth half a league, wherein were very many seal fishes, and other great fishes ;- and upon the main we saw bears, great deer, foxes, with 'divers strange beasts, which were to us unknown, and WINTERING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. also wonderful. Thus remaining in this haven the space of a week, seeing the year far spent, and also very evil weather, as frost, snow, and hail, as though it had been the depth of winter, we thought it best to winter there. Wherefore we sent out three men S.S.W., to search if they could find people, who went three days' journey, but could find none. After that we sent other three westward four days' journey, which also returned without SIR HUG If WILLO UGHB Y. 133 finding any people. Then sent we three men south-east three days' journey, who in like sort returned without finding people, or any similitude of habitation." With these last words the journal of Sir Hugh Willoughby closes. The ATTACK ON THE BEARS. explorers seem to have reached the desolate shores of Nova Zembla, and then to have returned to a lower latitude, and there attempted to winter. Nothing was known of their fate until the following year, when some Russian fisher- men found Willoughby and his crew, all frozen to death, at the mouth of the river Ar/.ina, in Lapland. Along with the journal from which we have quoted 134 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. was found the brave knight's will, the date of which shows .that he and most of his crew were still living at the beginning of 1554. Clement Adams, who wrote the narrative of the expedition which was preserved by Hakluyt, anticipates the melancholy fate of Willoughby and his KXPI.ORING THE COAST. crew in the concluding sentences of- his account of the storm by which the ships were separated. " If," he says, " it be so, that any miserable mishap have overtaken them, if the rage and fury of the sea have devoured these good men, or if as yet they live, and wander up and down in strange countries, I must needs say they were men worthy of better fortune, and, if they be living, RICHARD CHANCELLOR. 135 let us wish them safety and a good return ; but if the cruelty of death hath taken hold of them, God send them a Christian grave and sepulchre J" Richard Chancellor, who commanded the larger of the other two ships, rode out the storm, and steered to Wardhus, which had been assigned as the ICE BREAKING UP. rendezvous of the vessels in the event of separation. After long waiting there for Willoughby, he again put to sea, and, in the words of Clement Adams, " sailed so far that he came at last to the place where he found no night at all, but a continual light and brightness of the sun shining clearly upon the huge and mighty sea. And having the benefit of this perpetual light for certain days, at length it pleased God to bring them into a certain great bay, which 136 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. was 100 miles or thereabouts over. Whereinto they entered, and somewhat far within it cast anchor, and looking every way about them, it happened that they espied afar off a fisher boat, which Master Chancellor, accompanied with a few of his men, went towards to commune with the fishermen that were in PREPARING TO LEAVE. it, and to know of them what country it was, and what people, and of what manner of living they were ; but they, being amazed by the strange greatness of his ship (for in those parts before that they had never seen the like), began presently to avoid and flee ; but he, still following them, at last overtook them, and being come to them, they (being in great fear, as men half dead) prostrated themselves before him, offering to kiss his feet ; but he (according RICHARD CHANCELLOR. iJ7 to his great and singular courtesy) looked pleasantly upon them, comforting them by signs and gestures, refusing those duties and reverences of theirs, and taking them up in all loving sort from the ground. It is strange to consider how much favour this humanity of his did procure to himself afterwards in that place. For they, being dismissed, spread a report abroad of the arrival of a strange nation of singular gentleness and courtesy ; whereupon the common people came together, freely offering victuals to these new-come guests, and not refusing to traffic with them, except they had been bound by a certain religious use and custom not to buy any foreign commodities without the knowledge and consent of the king. By this time our men had . learned that the country was called Russia, or Moscovie, and that Ivan Vassilivitch (which was at that time their king's name) ruled and governed far and wide." The "great bay" which Chancellor had entered was the White Sea, till then unknown to the rest of the world. Messengers having been sent to Moscow to inform the Czar of his arrival, he remained at Archangel until their return with an invitation to the Muscovite Court, to which he travelled in a sledge, being the first Englishman who had ever made the journey. The narrator of the expedition tells us nothing concerning this journey, reserving all his powers of description for the Muscovite capital ; and, as the route was soon to be travelled over again, it is sufficient here to relate that Chancellor had an interview with the. Czar, and returned safely to England with a letter from that potentate to Edward VI., who had died, however, about two months after the expedition sailed from the Thames. CHAPTER XIV. THE TRAVELS OF AXTHONY JENKINSON IN CENTRAL ASIA. MORE than three hundred years ago, when Russia was an almost unknown region to the western nations of Europe, and Central Asia was known only by the relation of Marco Polo, an embassy arrived in England from the reigning Czar, Ivan II. The Muscovy Company was then aiming at the opening of a new route into Central Asia ; and when Gregorivitch, the Muscovite ambassador, took his departure from England, the vessel in which he sailed carried, in the capacity of master, Anthony Jenkinson, one of the Company's master mariners, who had been selected for the enterprise. The vessel left the Thames on the I2th of May, 1557, and sailed towards the north, for at that time the only route to a Russian port was round the North Cape. St. Petersburg was not then in existence, its future site being a dreary swamp ; and Archangel, on the right bank of the estuary of the Dwina, was the chief port of the Czar's dominions. It was to that port, accordingly, that Anthony Jenkinson directed his course, falling in during the voyage with many whales, and passing the spot where Sir Hugh Willoughby and all his crew had perished in the ice only four years before. The ambassador was very glad to get ashore, and prepared to journey by land with what state he might to Moscow ; while Jenkinson, as soon as he had settled his trading affairs in Archangel, sailed up the Dwina, in a small boat, to Vologda, a distance of more than a thousand miles. " All the way," he says, in the report which he subsequently made to his employers in London, " I never came in house, but lodged in the wilderness, by the river's side, and carried provision for the way. And he that will travel those ways must carry with him a hatchet, a tinder-box, and a kettle, to make fire and seeth meat, when he hath it ; for there is small succour in those parts, unless it be in towns." He left Vologda, in a sledge, on the 1st of December, the snow lying deep on the plains, and travelled southward to Yaroslav, a town ANTHONY JENKINSON. 139 on the right bank of the Volga. He mentions, Perislav as a large town, near a :ake, and, as the journey thence to Moscow occupied six days, it is RUSSIAN POST-STATION. probable that he was at least twice that time on the road from Vologda to the capital. It must have been a pleasant sight for our traveller, who was probably the second Englishman who had ever visited Moscow, when he beheld the towers MO HALF- HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. and domes of the city defined against the wintry sky. Owing to the flatness of the approach, the city is visible at a great distance ; and its almost innumerable cupolas, of varied sizes and colours, must have presented a novel VIEW OF THE CITY OF MOSCOW. aspect to the eye of the solita'ry traveller, as he careered over the frozen snow. His first concern, on arriving in the city, was to obtain an audience of the Czar, " who sat in a goodly chair of state, having on his head a crown most richly decked, and a staff of gold in his hand, all apparelled with gold, and garnished with precious stones." The son of the Khan of Kasan, who had 142 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. been subdued by the Czar eight years previously, was present during the interview. After the audience, Jenkinson dined with the Czar, and he notes that gold and silver plate was abundantly displayed. Jenkinson was in Moscow between three and four months, and saw all the " lions " of the city, which were probably as remarkable then as now. The Kremlin and the cathedrals must have excited his wonder by the semi- oriental character of their architecture, and there was besides the ancient palace of the Tartar Khans, of which only a few crumbling ruins remain at the present day. He left Moscow on the 2nd of April, 1558, with three servants, one of whom was a Tartar, and some bales of assorted merchandise, to be bartered for the products of the countries into which he hoped to penetrate. Travelling slowly over a far-stretching plain, diversified only by a wood or a swamp, with here and there a straggling village, he reached the ancient city of Nijni -Novgorod eleven days after his departure from the capital. There he waited eight days for a Muscovite officer, who was expected there on his way down the Volga to Astrakhan, of which city he had been appointed governor. The Muscovite having at length arrived, with a numerous escort, Nijni-Novgorod was left on the 2ist, and on the 2Qth the travellers reached Kasan, which Jenkinson describes as " a fair town," with a strong castle, and walled with timber and earth, which defence was about to be replaced by a rampart of stone. Jenkinson sojourned at Kasan until the I3th of June, when he resumed his descent of the Volga, and on the I4th of July reached Astrakhan, situated on an island at the mouth of the river, and walled, like Kasan, with timber and earth. Here he could have bought a Tartar boy or girl for a sixpenny loaf, and repeated the transaction as often as he pleased. On the loth of August he embarked on a small vessel with his merchandise, and after being boarded by Tartars, who spared his life only because he was not a Russ, and driven out of his course by a storm, he landed on the eastern shore of the Caspian on the 3rd of September. Being hospitably entertained by a Tartar chief, though molested by some of the people, whom he describes as "brutish," he remained in the neighbourhood of his place of disembarkation until the 1 4th, when he set out for the interior, with his merchandise on the backs of camels. After traversing a desert, where water was scarce and brackish, for twenty days, he reached a gulf of the Caspian, and after resting a day, went on to ANTHONY JENKINSON. Sellizura. There he was hospitably entertained by the Khan, who furnished him with a safe-conduct pass to Bokhara, which did not, however, prevent him from being attacked by a nomad tribe, his successful resistance of which FISHING-STATION ON THE VOLGA. he ascribes to the possession of four hand-guns by the Tartars of his party. Many men, horses, and camels were slain on both sides, however, before the assailants drew off. An alarm of another attack occurred shortly afterwards, and Jenkinson and his party, hastily breaking up their camp in the night,. 144 HALF-HOURS WITH THE -EARLY EXPLORERS. rode for their lives through the darkness until they reached the Oxus, and got safely over to the other side. Bokhara was reached on the 23rd of December, and there our traveller remained until the following spring. War then commenced between Bokhara and Samarcand, and he left the city on the i8th of March, 1559, with a caravan of six hundred camels, envoys from Bokhara and Balkh to the Czar being among his travelling companions. Ten days after their departure, the city was invested by the forces of the Khan of Samarcand. The shores of the Caspian were reached once more on the 2^rd of April, and Jenkinson records, with pride, that he displayed the red-cross flag of England St. George's Jack which had never been seen on those waters before. Astrakhan was reached on tl.e 28th of May, and from that city he continued his journey to Moscow by the route that he had travelled from the Muscovite capital to the banks of the Volga. A great part of that region was then uninhabited, or only wandered over by nomad Tartars ; and he records that, in a journey of forty-eight days, from Astrakhan to Kasan, he did not see a single house. Arriving at Moscow on the 2nd of September, he again had an audience of the Czar, to whom he presented a Tartar drum and the tail of a white Cathay cow. He had the honour of dining with Ivan, who asked many questions concerning the countries he had visited, towards which the Russian frontier was then, and has ever since been, gradually extending. He remained in Moscow until the nth of February, 1560, when he set out on his return journey to Archangel. The results of this expedition were so satisfactory to the Muscovy Com- pany that Jenkinson was sent out again in May, 1561, with instructions to penetrate into Eastern Persia. The Mediterranean and the Asiatic provinces of the Ottoman empire would have afforded the nearest route ; but Jenkinson made the same circuitous journey as before, sailing round the North Cape into the White Sea, ascending the Dwina to Vologda, travelling by land thence to Moscow and Nijni-Novgorod, and descending the Volga to Astrakhan, from which port he embarked in a small vessel for Derbend, on the west coast of the Caspian. Jenkinson was less fortunate in this second expedition than in the formc'r one, the first mischance that befell him happening on the voyage from Astrakhan to Derbend. A terrible storm arose, and the merchandise intended for the marts of Persia had to be thrown overboard, to lighten the 146 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. vessel. He reached the last-named port on the 4th of August, and describes it as an ancient town, defended by an old castle and stone walls of consider- able height and thickness, the construction of which was attributed to Alexander the Great. From Derbend he proceeded, notwithstanding the loss of his goods, to Shabran, where he was hospitably entertained by the governor, and thence RUSSIAN VILLAGE-HOUSES. to Shirwan. There he had the honour of dining with Abdoolah Khan, whom he describes as " a prince of a mean stature and fierce countenance, richly apparelled with long garments of silk and cloth of gold, embroidered with pearls and gems. Upon his head was a tolipane, with a sharp end standing upward half a yard long, of rich cloth of gold, wrapped about with a piece of Indian silk twenty yards long, wrought with gold ; and on the left side of his tolipane stood a plume of feathers, set in a trunk of gold, richly ANTHONY JENKINSON. 147 enamelled, and set with precious stones. His ear-rings had pendents of gold a hand long, with two great rubies of great value set in the ends." From Shirwan he proceeded to Casbin, a town midway between Reshd and Teheran, where he had an audience with the Sophi of Persia, resulting in that potentate declaring that he would have no friendship with unbelievers, and calling for a basin of sand, in which he performed the pantomime of VIEW ON THE VOLGA, WESTERN BANK. washing his hands. Jenkinson's mission was a failure, therefore, and he had to endure the mortification of having to return to England with- out having accomplished its object, He remained at Casbin, however, from the beginning of November until towards the close of the following March, when he returned to Shirwan. While in that city, he was waited upon by an envoy from the King of Georgia, who, being sorely beset by the Turks on one side and the Persians on the other, sought his advice J 2 A O1KI. OF liOKHAR/. ANTHONY' JENKINSON. 149 as to the chances of aid from Russia. Jenkinson advised an embassy to the Czar, and may thus be said to have set in motion the machinery by ^Xfti'f&'W RUSSIAN PEASANT GIRL. which Georgia ultimately lost her independence, and became a province of Russia. Travelling from Shinvan to Derbend, and again embarking on the HAL J^ HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Caspian, Jenkinson reached Astrakhan on the 3Oth of May, 1562, and journeyed from that port to Moscow, and thence to Archangel, by the same route as before. Though the main object of his mission remained unaccomplished, there is no doubt that his two journeys did much to promote commercial intercourse between England and Russia. The results were not immediately manifested, but the war in which Ivan II. engaged with Poland and the Livonian knights tended to keep the desirability of a sea route for the products of the West constantly before his mind, and in 1569 a treaty of commerce was concluded between the two countries. CHAPTER XV. THE THREE VOYAGES OF MARTIN FROBISHER IN SEARCH OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE TO ASIA. THE idea of a north-west passage to Asia was revived in the reign of Elizabeth, and several vain endeavours were made to discover it, which were not, how- ever, without results to geographical science. The first enterprise undertaken in that direction was that of Martin Frobisher, who sailed from the Thames, with two small ships, on the /th of June, 1576, with the design of seeking for the wished-for passage in higher latitudes than had been explored by Cabota and Cartier. To this end, he steered northward, passing Fair Island, the most northerly of the Orkneys, on the 24th, and Sumburgh Head, the most southerly point of Shetland, on the following day. He then steered to the north-west, and on the 2/th was in 60, and two leagues E.N.E. from the island of Foula, the most westerly of the Shetland Isles. On the nth of July, the voyagers were in 61, and in sight of Greenland, " rising like pinnacles of steeples, and all covered with snow." The naviga- tion was now so much impeded by thick fogs and floating ice that their progress was slow ; but on the 28th, having then reached the sixty-second parallel of latitude by north-westerly sailing, the fog cleared away, and they saw land, which they supposed to be the coast of Labrador, but could not approach it for the quantity of ice by which it was environed. On the 3 ist they saw a headland, but this also could not be approached for ice. On the ist of August they were threatened by an enormous iceberg, which broke up, however, on the following day, " making a noise as if a great cliff had fallen into the sea." On the loth they discovered an island, about a league from the shore, and next day entered the strait which has ever since been known as Frobisher's, though it is now considered doubtful whether it has any com- munication with Hudson's Strait at its western extremity, and should not, OCF.EX ELIZABETH. MARTIN FROBISHER. 153 therefore, be called a gulf. On the 12th they cast anchor in a little bayv which they named Prior's Sound, ten leagues from one of the islands which they had discovered, and upon which they had conferred the name of Gabriel Island, after one of the ships. On the i8th they weighed anchor, and sailed up the strait, discovering Barcher's Island, upon the west side of which a party of the explorers landed on the following day. " Going to the top of the island," says Christopher Hall, the master of the Gabriel, " we had sight of seven boats, which came rowing from the east side towards that island, whereupon we returned aboard again. At length we sent our boat, with five men in her, to see whither they rowed, and so with a white cloth brought one of their boats, with their men, along the shore, rowing after our boat, till such time as they saw our ship, and then they rowed ashore. Then I went ashore myself, and gave every one of them a threaden point, and brought one of them aboard, where he did eat and drink, and then carried him on shore again ; whereupon all the rest came aboard with their boats, being nineteen persons, and they spake, but we understood them not. They be like to Tartars, with long black hair, broad faces, and flat noses, and tawny in colour, wearing seal skins ; and so do the women, not differing in the fashion, but the women are marked in the face with blue streaks down the cheeks, and round about the eyes." On the following day they landed on the east side of the island, where they discovered many houses and canoes of the Esquimaux. One of the fur-clad natives was induced to go aboard the ship, and, after being presented by Frobisher with a little bell, was sent ashore. The officer of the boat that conveyed him to the island was instructed to land him on a little rock near the shore, as a precaution against violence or treachery on the part of the natives ; but this injunction was disobeyed, and the officer and crew of the boat, five men in all, were, on going ashore, seized and carried off. Finding that they did not return, and being unable to gain any tidings of them, Frobisher seized one of the Esquimaux with his canoe, and sailed out of the strait. On the 1st of September they were again in sight of Greenland, but could not land " for the monstrous ice that lay about it." On the 7th they en- countered a terrible storm, in which one of the crew of Frobisher's ship was blown out of the rigging, but, clutching one of the sheets, was grasped firmly by the captain, and thus saved from a watery grave. On the 25th the Orkneys were in sight, and on the 2nd of October the ships anchored before Harwich. 154 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. The results of this voyage were deemed so encouraging that preparations were made without delay for a further exploration of the passage discovered by Frobisher, or, as the official document expresses it, " for the further dis- covery of the passage to Cathay and other countries thereunto adjacent by west and north-west navigations." Frobisher sailed from the Thames on the SAILING AMONG ICE-BERGS. 26th of May, 1577, with a ship of a hundred and eighty tons, and two smaller vessels ; and, taking the same course as before, was in sight of the Orkneys on the 7th of June. Several large fir-trees were seen floating in the sea on the 1 3th, and were supposed by Dionise Settle, the narrator of the voyage, to have drifted with the current from Newfoundland. Greenland was in sight on the 4th of July, and they coasted along its MARTIN FROB1SHER. 155 shores for four days, seeing no signs of human habitation, and passing great mountains of ice. The weather was very bad, the wind howling through the rigging, and snow and hail falling thick and fast. Land birds, which the voyagers supposed to have become lost at sea in foggy weather, frequently settled on the yards, and suggested that, desolate and ice-bound as the coast was, there were pleasant valleys in the interior, where the feathered tribes warbled as cheerfully as in climes nearer the sun. Leaving "Greenland's icy mountains" behind them, the explorers arrived on the 1 6th at the mouth of the passage discovered the year before, and found it so beset with floating ice as to be impassable for ships. Frobisher found a passage in a boat, however, and explored the islands and the east shore, which he supposed to be a portion of the continent of Asia. Some Esquimaux were seen, and an attempt was made to seize some of them, which they repelled by a shower of arrows. One of the natives was cap- tured, but several of the boat's crew were wounded. On the i8th the ice began to drift out of the strait, under the influence of a strong westerly wind, and on the following day the ships sailed in, and anchored in Jackman's Bay, which was so named by the explorers after the master's mate of the largest ship. Supposing that he had solved the problem of a north-west passage to Asia, and having found some pieces of stone, glistening with yellow particles, which he thought might be gold, Frobisher took formal possession, in the name of Queen Elizabeth, of what is now known as Fox Land, and marched into the interior, with the standard of England displayed, to view the- new country which his enterprise had, as he thought, secured for trade and settle- ment by his countrymen. The results of the survey were not encouraging. The stony soil produced only mosses and lichens, with here and there a juniper bush, or a stunted fir. Frobisher determined, therefore, to explore the west shore, though it was little more inviting in its aspect than the sterile and inhospitable region already surveyed. In sailing across the strait, the explorers discovered " a dead fish floating, which had in his nose a horn straight and torquet,* of length two yards lacking two inches, being broken in the top, where we might perceive it hollow, into * This word seems to mean, twisted spirally, as the horn (or rather tusk) of the narwhal, or sea- unicorn, is, and to be derived from the heraldic term "torque," a twisted band, or the French verb twquer, to twist. i 5 6 HALF- HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. which our sailors putting spiders, they presently died. I saw not the trial," adds the narrator, "but it was reported to me of a truth, by the virtue whereof we supposed it to be the sea-unicorn." The natives of the west shore fled AN ARCTIC SCENE. on the landing of Frobisher and some of his sailors ; and to encourage them, some trifling articles were left, such as knives, beads, and small bells, with a letter for the men who had been seized the year before, and pens, ink, and paper for their use, in the event of the letter being found by them. While surveying the coast, they came suddenly upon a party of the MARTIN FROBISHER. 157 natives, and the encounter resulted in a smart skirmish, in which we find the explorers using the same weapons as the savages, namely, bows and arrows. Three of the natives, being wounded, threw themselves from a rock into the sea, and were drowned, rather than become captives, which Settle regards as a proof of their implacable disposition. The rest escaped by flight, Avith the exception of an old woman, a young one, and a child, who were captured. " The old wretch," says Settle, " whom divers of our sailors supposed to be either a devil or a witch, had her buskins plucked off, to see if she were cloven-footed ; and for her ugly hue and her deformity we let her go : the young woman and the child we brought away." The little bay in which the explorers landed on this occasion was named York's Sound, after the master of one of the barques, and the headland on which the skirmish took place, Bloody Point. " Having this knowledge both of their fierceness and their cruelty," continues Settle, " and perceiving that fair means as yet are not able to allure them to familiarity, we disposed ourselves, contrary to our inclinations, to be cruel, and returned to their tents, and made spoil of the same, where we found an old shirt, a doublet, a girdle, and also shoes of our men whom we lost the year before. On nothing else to them belonging could we set our eyes." Some Esquimaux, with whom they subsequently held communication, made them understand by signs that three of the missing boat's crew were living, and would shortly return to the ship ; but they were never seen again, nor was anything ever learned concerning their fate. Repeated attempts were made by the natives of the west shore to lure Frobisher and his men ashore ; but treachery was feared, and on the 24th of August the ships left the strait. On the 2Qth they were separated by a violent storm, and never joined company again. Frobisher, with the largest ship, arrived at Milford in the middle of September, and had shortly the ; satisfaction of learning that one of the barques had rcnched Bristol, t and that the other, having gone "north about," was anchored safely at Yarmouth. Though the pieces of glistening stone which had been picked up on the east shore of Frobisher's Strait exemplified the adage, " all that glitters is not gold," hopes were excited by the discovery that gold might exist where other minerals were found, and the queen ordered a third expedition to be under- taken, in which the search for gold-fields was to be combined with a further 153 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. attempt to discover the north-West passage. Natural phenomena were also to be studied, with a view to new quests upon a surer foundation. "If it be ESQUIMAUX FISHING. possible," says the paper of instructions prepared for Frobisher's guidance, " you shall leave some persons to winter in the strait, giving them instructions how they may observe the nature of the air and the state of the country, and what time cf the year the strait is most free from ice ; with whom you shall MARTIN FROBISHER. 159 leave a sufficient preparation of victuals and weapons, and also a pinnace, with a carpenter, and things necessary, so well as may be." The expedition sailed from the Thames on the 2$th of May, 1578, and varied the route on this occasion by proceeding down the English Channel, THE WHITE liEAR. and then towards the north, passing the western coast of Ireland. " Some- times passing at pleasure with a wished eastern wind," says Thomas Ellis, the narrator of this voyage, " sometimes hindered of our course again by the western blasts, until the 2Oth of June, on which day, in the morning, we fell in with Friseland, which is a very high and cragged land, almost covered with 160 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. snow, so that we might see nought but craggy rocks and tops of high and huge hills, sometimes (and for the most part) all covered with foggy mists. There might we also perceive great isles of ice lying on the seas, like mountains, some small, some big, of sundry shapes, and such a number of them that we could not come near the shore for them." Fogs and floating ice continued to impede their progress during the re- mainder of the voyage, and when, on the 2nd of July, they reached what they supposed to be the mouth of Frobisher's Straits, doubts arose in the minds of those who were most competent to judge as to whether they were in the same latitude as before. George Best, one of the narrators of Frobisher's voyages, says that the passage entered on the third voyage was not the strait previously explored ; that Christopher Hall, the chief pilot, was confident that he had never seen it before ; and that Frobisher himself became convinced of the error, but dissembled in order to prevent discontent among the crew. The passage, whatever it was, was closed by ice, and, a storm arising, the ships were in a position of the utmost peril. One of the barques was crushed by the ice, and the crew were saved by the boats of the other vessels, whose crews had to make the most arduous exertions, and were themselves exposed to fearful dangers. The surviving ships were much damaged by the ice with which they were begirt, and it must have been a great relief to the dismayed crews when the wind abated, and then changed to the westward, and they saw the immense masses of ice drifting towards the open sea. Frobisher's ship and the remaining barque now sailed into the gulf, but a thick fog coming on they became separated on the 5th, and did not join company again until the*3Oth. 'JJie larger vessel was again in great peril from fog and ice on the iSth, but on the following day the fog cleared, and, though she was still girt with ice, the anxious crew were at least enabled to see, and to do their best to avoid the fearful dangers to. which they were constantly exposed. Nothing could be achieved in such weather in the way of geographical discovery, and the sole result of the voyage was the finding of what was supposed to be gold, but which was probably ferruginous or cupreous pyrites, on an island in Bear Sound, to which the explorers gave the name of Countess of Sussex Island. The two vessels, being again in company on the 3Oth, sailed for England on the following day, and, after being tossed about in a storm, by which they were again separated, arrived in the Thames towards the end of September. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. CHAPTER XVI. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S VOYAGE R6tjND THE WORLD. t WHILE the intrepid Frobisher was engaged in the vain endeavour to find a new route to the East between the ice-bound shores of the arctic regions, another gallant Englishman was emulating Magalhaen in what was then deemed the great and arduous exploit of circumnavigating the globe. Towards the close of 1577, a small fleet of five vessels, the largest of which was only one hundred tons burden, was equipped at Plymouth, partly at the cost of Sir Francis Drake, and partly by the aid of certain distinguished persons, among whom the queen is said to have been one. The admiral assumed the command, and, besides the officers of the several vessels, was accompanied by a considerable number of gentlemen, as volunteers. The K 162 HALF- HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. seamen were engaged for a voyage to Alexandria, and the real object of the expedition, which was the harassing of the Spanish possessions and trade in the New World, was not disclosed until it reached the coast of South America. The little fleet sailed from Plymouth on the I5th of November, but encountered such bad weather that the ships were obliged to put into- CAPE MOGADORE. Falmouth to refit, and did not resume the voyage until the I3th of December, On the 2/th they anchored before Mogadore, and, sailing from that port on the last day of the year, stood to the south-west, capturing several Spanish vessels on their way. On the i/th of January, 1578, they were off Cape Blanco, where they landed their prisoners, and remained several days, bartering with the natives. On the 2/th tfiey were at Muyo, whence, supplies being refused them there, they stood to the westward. As they CAPE BLANCO. sailed past San Jago, three guns were fired at them, but without doing any damage ; and in revenge, a Portuguese vessel, laden with wine, was seized. The crew of the captured vessel were allowed to go free, with the exception of the pilot, who, because he- was well acquainted with the South American coast, and might, therefore, be useful to them, was detained. Having taken in water at Brava, they sailed for the coast of Brazil, which, owing to a succession of storms and calms, was not in sight until the 5th of April. On the i$th of May, as the fleet sailed slowly along the coast, a SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 163 bay was discovered, which Drake proceeded in his barge to explore. Two- huts were seen, but no natives were visible. Many rheas were observed running over the plains, and their eggs discovered in sandy hollows. A storm arising, Drake was in some peril, the barge being three leagues from the flag-ship; but one of the smaller vessels of the fleet sailed' into the bay, and took him on board. The unseaworthiness of some of the smaller vessels was now so apparent that Drake brought the fleet to anchor a few days afterwards, and had one of them .broken up. During the progress of this work many of the natives were seen ; they were naked, and had long black hair. Their weapons were bows and arrows, the latter being made of reeds, and headed with pointed pieces of flint. Seals and penguins were, numerous in the bay, and both were taken for food by the crews. The expedition sailed again on the 3rd of June, but another vessel broke down, and the fleet anchored again in a little bay a few days afterwards to break it up. On the iQth they, entered Port Julian, where they encountered the savage natives of Patagonia, who were described on the return of the expedi- tion to England as being as gigantic as they were said to have been found by Magalhaen. With these giants the ex- plorers were soon on friendly terms, and a shooting-match was got up, in which the advantage was found to be on the side of the English. A quarrel' arose, however, and Oliver, the master gunner, was killed, and two seamen wounded with arrows. Drake shot the Indian who had slain Oliver, and recalled his followers to the ships. Their retreat was not molested, and the K 2 A FUEGIAN. 164 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. affray, which arose from a trivial dispute, did not put an end to the friendly relations which had been established between the Indians and their visitors. While the ships were in Port Julian a quarrel, which led to a deplorable result, arose between the admiral and a gentleman volunteer named Doughty, who was brought to trial, condemned to death, and ordered by A FAMILY GROUP OF FUEGIANS. Drake to be beheaded. This sentence, which has subjected the admiral to much opprobrium, was carried into execution upon the beach, where the corpse of the unfortunate Doughty was interred. Leaving Port Julian soon after this lamentable affair, Drake entered the Strait of Magalhaen on the 2Oth of August, and discovered some small islands, to which he g^ve the name of Elizabethides, in honour of the queen. SIX FRANCIS DRAKE. 165 The passage of the strait was effected in seventeen days, much to the surprise and chagrin of the Spaniards, who believed that none but themselves would undertake an enterprise which they regarded as so perilous, or could possibly accomplish it. The shores of the strait were explored, and observations taken of the currents and soundings, and of the habits and manners of the savage aborigines. The enormous flocks of penguins still helped to furnish food for the crews, no fewer than three thousand of these unwieldy birds being killed on one of the islands in a single battue. The western extremity of the strait was reached on the 6th of September, but there arose a violent storm, which continued without interruption for more than a month. One of the smaller vessels was separated from the other ships, and, after being tossed about several weeks, returned to England. Drake's ship and her sole remaining companion were driven by the storm as far south as the fifty-fifth parallel of latitude, where some islands were discovered, where the crews found vegetables and fresh water, both of which were much needed, and obtained provisions by barter from the natives. Rested and refreshed from their late hardships and fatigue, the explorers resumed their voyage ; but the storm burst forth again with renewed fury and inclemency. To this tempestuous weather, however, Drake owed the chief geographical discovery of his voyage. "T remember," says Sir Robert Hawkins, "that Sir Francis Drake told me that, having shot the straits, a storm took him first at north-west, and after veered about to south-west, which continued with him many days, with that extremity that he could not open any sail, and that at the *6nd of the storm he found himself in fifty degrees, which was sufficient testimony and proof that he was beaten round about the straits, for the least height of the strait is in 52 50', in which stand the two entrances or mo.uths. And, moreover, he said that, standing about when the wind changed, he was .not, well able to double the southernmost island, and so anchored under the lee of it, and going ashore, carried a compass with him. and seeking out the southern- most part of the island, cast himself down upon the uttermost point grovelling, and so reached out his body over it. Presently' he embarked, and then recounted unto his people that he had been upon the southernmost known land in the world, and more farther to the southwards upon it than any of them, yea, or any man as yet known." Huces, the captain of one of the ships of Loaysa's expedition, which was 1 66 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. sent out from Spain in 1526, to claim the Moluccas, is said to have been driven so far to the southward that he saw the extremity of South America ; but the accounts of his voyage are so contradictory, that the distinction of having discovered Cape Horn seems due to Sir Francis Drake, though it was THE COAST NEAR VALPARAISO. claimed by Schouten nearly forty years afterwards. Drake saw " the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea meet in a large and free scope," and, sailing into the Pacific, anchored in one of the numerous bays on the west coast of Patagonia. The crew of a boat which he here sent ashore were attacked by the natives, who are supposed to have taken them for Spaniards, and every man was wounded by a shower of arrows from their dusky and unseen assailants. Sailing away from this inhospitable shore, Drake anchored in the harbour SIX FRANCIS DRAKE. 167 of Valparaiso, where he seized a Spanish vessel laden with wine. The inhabitants of the town fled in terror, and the adventurers, going ashore, found so much plunder, that they were occupied three days in removing it to the ships. Thence they sailed to Coquimbo, where the Spaniards made such preparations for resistance as caused Drake to refrain from attacking the place. He sailed slowly along the coast, plundering the Spaniards and trafficking with the Indians, and on the 7th of February, 1579, arrived at Arica, where he captured three vessels, the crews of which were at the time ashore. A week later he captured several vessels at Callao, and on the ist of March took a rich treasure ship, after a slight resistance, the captain alleging that he was taken by surprise, believing Drake's ships to be Spanish. Drake now stood to the north-west, overhauling and plundering several small Spanish vessels in his course, and, after taking in wood and water at the Isle of Canes, sailed as far in that direction as the forty-third parallel of north latitude. Here the cold was found so intolerable that the course was changed, and the ships, running southward, discovered a bay on the coast of California, where they anchored on the I7th of June. Finding the country fertile and the natives hospitable, Drake took formal possession in the name of the Queen of England, and gave the region the name of New Albion. The claim thus set up was never sought to be supported, however, though Pinkerton, in his narrative of Drake's voyage, states that discoveries of gold and silver were made, and that the soil was so rich in both metals that, " upon the slightest turning it up with a spade or pickaxe these rich metals plainly appear mixed with the mould." Drake sailed from these auriferous shores on the 23rd of July, and steered towards the rich islands of the eastern archipelago. On the 3Oth of September some small islands were discovered in 30 N., the natives of which at first bartered their produce for trifling articles of European manufacture, but soon, presuming upon the comparative fewness of the strangers, they began to appropriate anything they fancied without giving an equivalent. Drake ordered the guns to be fired, in order to frighten the marauders away from the ships, and then sailed towards the equator. The Moluccas were in sight on the 3rd of November, and on the 5th he anchored ofTTernate. Thereupon "three large barges," says Moore, in his narrative of the voyage, "with the viceroy, and several of the principal nobility, came out to conduct the vessel safe into harbour. The king likewise, having been presented with a velvet i68 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARL\ EXPLORERS. cloak in sign of amity, afterwards came in great state, and was received under the discharge of the cannon, the music striking up as he approached. This prince had guards who understood the use of fire-arms, though javelins and , UTENSILS AND WEAPONS OF THE NATIVES OK NEW CALIFORNIA. bows and arrows were their principal weapons. He is described as a person of a majestic mien and graceful aspect. Those that attended him were dressed in cottons, and some of them were of a venerable aged appearance. He withdrew when the ship came to an anchor, having given his subjects leave to traffic with the strangers, and promised to return within the space of two SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 169 days. Drake having sent some gentlemen on shore, they were conducted to the castle, and being introduced at Court, found there near a thousand people. On each side of the outward gate there waited old interpreters of other countries. When his majesty appeared on this occasion he was dressed in cloth of gold, and had his hair woven into golden ringlets ; he had diamond VIEW IN TERNATE. rings on his fingers, and a gold chain round his neck. Near his chair there was a page with a fan set with sapphires, which was useful in moderating the heat ; and he sat under a rich canopy, where he received the English in state, and with marks of honour and respect." On the 9*h, having taken four tons of cloves aboard, Drake weighed anchor, and sailed to the southward. Both his ships were so leaky and foul, 17 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. however, that, on reaching a beautiful fertile island, which was found to be uninhabited, he anchored them in a creek, the wooded shores of which were illuminated nightly by innumerable fire- flies, and remained there nearly a month. Turtles and fruit were plentiful, and the double processes of re- fitting the ships and refreshing the crews went on together very pleasantly. NATIVES OF NEW CALIFORNIA. Drake left on this island a negro lad and a mulatto girl whom he had taken out of one of his. prizes, for which act he has been severely condemned. The navigation of the seas between India and Australia requires great caution, even with good charts, owing to the number of small islands with which they are dotted, and the shoals and reefs which lie hidden beneath the water. The navigators of the sixteenth century were very seldom pro- SIX FRANCIS DRAKE. 171 vided with charts, and Drake's must necessarily have been very imperfect, even if he possessed any at all. It is not surprising, therefore, that, on the night of the iQth of January, 1580, his ship grounded on a concealed rock, and, though the guns and water-casks were cast overboard, could not be moved. The crew were mustered, and to every man the chaplain adminis- NATIVES OF NEW CALIFORNIA. tered the sacrament of the communion, all on board expecting a watery grave. But the wind changed, and the ship was heaved off the rock, having sustained very little damage. They now sailed very cautiously to Baratene, where they refitted, pro- ceeding thence to Java. There Drake and his officers were sumptuously entertained by the king, and allowed to refit, which had again become 172 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. necessary, and to obtain the supplies they required for the continuance of the voyage. The crews were now become clamorous for returning to England, and orders were given to steer for the Cape of Good Hope. That famous promontory was doubled on the I5th of June, and on the 22nd of July the expedition was at Sierra Leone, where two days were spent. Thence they steered homeward, and on the 3rd of November anchored in Plymouth harbour, having completed the first circumnavigation of the globe ever performed by Englishmen. CHAIR OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, Made out of the remains of his Vessel, the Golden Hind, and preserved at the University of Oxford. SSSi^i^S^Si^S^^^^''^''^^ CHAPTER XVII. THE VOYAGES OF JOHN DAVIS IN SEARCH OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. SEVEN years after Frobisher's last voyage, the attempt to discover a north- west passage to the East was renewed by John Davis, a native of Devon- shire, who, ten years later, published a small, and now very rare, volume, entitled " The World's Hydrographical Description," the title-page of which informs the reader that it proves, " not only by authority of writers, but also by late experience of travellers and reasons of substantial probability, that the world, in all its zones, climates, and places, is habitable, and inhabited, and the seas likewise universally navigable, without any natural annoyance to hinder the same; whereby appears that from England there is a short and speedy passage into the South Seas, to China, Molucca, Philippina, and India, by northerly navigation, to the renown, honour, and profit of her Majesty's State and Commonalty." In this work, the intrepid navigator gives a short narrative of his three voyages, made in 1585 and the two following years, which, notwithstanding their unsuccessful termination, he regards as evidence of the practicability of the north-west passage. " In my first voyage," says he, " not experienced of the nature of those climates, and having no direction, either by chart, globe, or other certain relators, in what latitude that passage was to be searched, I shaped a northerly course, and so sought the same towards the south ; and in that my northerly course I fell upon the shore which in ancient time was called Greenland, five hundred leagues distant from the Durseys,* west-nor'-west northerly, the land being very high, and full of mighty mountains, all covered with snow, no view of wood, grass, of earth to be seen, and the shore two leagues off into the sea so full of ice as that no shipping could by any * Dursey Island, off the western extremity of the county of Cork. 174 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. means come near the same. The loathsome view of the shore, and irksome noise of the ice, was such that it bred strange conceits among us, so that we supposed the place to be waste and void of any sensible or vegetable creatures, whereupon I called the same Desolation; so coasting this shore towards the south, in the latitude of sixty degrees, I found it to tend towards ICE-BERGS. the west. I still followed the leading thereof in the same height, and, after fifty or sixty leagues, it failed, and lay directly north, which I still followed, and in thirty leagues sailing upon the west side of this coast by me named Desolation, we were past all the ice, and found many green and pleasant hills bordering upon the shore, but the mountains of the main were still covered with great quantities of snow. I brought my ship among those JOHN DAVIS. i75 hills, and there moored to refresh ourselves in our weary travel, in the latitude of sixty-four degrees or thereabout.* " The people of the country, having espied our ships, came down unto us in ' their canoes, holding up their right hand to the sun, and crying yiiaout, would strike their breasts ; we doing the like, the people came aboard our ships, men of good stature, unbearded, small-eyed, and of tract- able conditions ; by whom, as signs would permit, we understood that towards the north and west there was a great sea, and using the people with kindness, in giving them nails and knives, which of all things they most desired, we departed, and, finding the sea free from ice, supposing ourselves to be past all danger, we shaped our course west-nor'-west, thinking thereby to pass for China ; but in the latitude of sixty-six degrees we fell in with another shore, and there found another passage of twenty leagues broad, directly west into the same, which we supposed to be our hoped strait. We entered into the same thirty or forty leagues, finding it neither to widen nor straighten ; then, considering that the year was spent, for this was in the fine of August, and not knowing the length of this strait and the dangers thereof, we took it our best course to return, with notice of our good success for this small time of search. And so, returning in a sharp fret of westerly winds, the 2Qth of September we arrived at Dartmouth. " And acquainting Master Secretary,f with the rest of the honourable and worshipful adventurers, of all our proceedings, I was appointed again the second year to search the bottom of this strait, because by all likeli- hood it was the place and passage by us laboured for. In this second attempt the merchants of Exeter, and other places of the west, became adventurers in the action, so that, being sufficiently furnished for six months, and having direction to search this strait until we found the same to fall into another sea upon the west side of this part of America, we should' again return, for then it was not to be doubted but shipping with trade might safely be conveyed to China and the ports of Asia. "We departed from Dartmouth, and arriving unto the south part of the coast of Desolation, coasted the same upon its west shore to the latitude of sixty-six degrees, and there anchored among the hills bordering upon the same, where we refreshed ourselves. The people of this place came * This must have been the haven called by the Danes Coodhaab. f Sir Francis Walsingham. JOHN DAVIS. 177 likewise unto us, by whom I understood through their signs, that towards the north the sea was large. At this place the chief ship, whereupon I trusted, called the Mermaid, of Dartmouth, found many occasions of dis- content, and being unwilling to proceed she there forsook me. Then? considering how I had given my faith and most constant promise to my worshipful good friend Master William Saunderson, who of all men was the greatest adventurer in that action, and took such care for the performance thereof that he hath to my knowledge, at one time, disbursed as much money as any five others whatsoever out of his own purse, when some of the company have been slack in giving in their adventure ; and also knowing that I should lose the favour of Master Secretary, if I should shrink from his direction ; in one small bark of thirty tons, whereof Master Saunderson was owner alone, without further comfort or company, I proceeded on my voyage, and arriving into this strait, followed the same eighty leagues, until I came among many islands, where the water did ebb and flow six fathom upright, and where there had been great trade of people to make train.* "But by such things as there we found, we knew that they were not Christians of Europe that used that trade ; in fine, by searching with our boat, we found small hope to pass any farther that way, and therefore returning again recovered the sea, and so coasted the shore towards the south, and in so doing (for it was too late to search towards the north) we found another great inlet, near forty leagues broad, where the water entered in with violent swiftness. This w r e likewise thought might be a passage, for no doubt but the north parts of America are all islands, by aught that I could perceive therein ; but because I was alone, in a small bark of thirty tons, and the year spent, I entered not into the same, for it was now the 7th of September, but coasting the shore towards the south, we saw an incredible number of birds. Having divers fishermen aboard our bark, they all concluded that there was a great school of fish. We being un- provided of fishing furniture, with a long spike-nail made a hook, and fastening the same to one of our sounding lines, before the bait was changed we took more than forty great cods, the fish swimming so abund- antly thick about our bark as is incredible to be reported of, which, with * Train oil, as the oil obtained from the blubber of whales was formerly called. L i 7 8 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. a small portion of salt that we had, we preserved some thirty couple or thereabout ; and so returned for England. " And having reported to Master Secretary the whole success of this attempt, he commanded me to present unto the Most Honourable Lord High PARHELIOS (MOCK SUN), SEEN IN HIGH LATITUDES. Treasurer of England* some part of that fish ; which when his lordship saw, and heard at large the relation of this second attempt, I received favourable countenance from his honour, advising me to prosecute the action, of which his lordship conceived a very good opinion. The next year, although divers of the adventurers fell from the action, as all the western merchants and most * Lord BurleiHi. JOHN DA VIS. 179 of those in London, yet some of the adventurers, both honourable and worshipful, continued their willing favour and charge, so that by this means the next year two ships were appointed for the fishing, and one pinnace for the discovery. " Departing from Dartmouth, through God's merciful favour, I arrived to the place of fishing, and there, according to my direction, I left the two ships ICE-BOUND. to follow that business, taking their faithful promise not to depart until my return unto them, which should be in the fine of August. And so in the bark I proceeded for the discovery ; but after my departure, in sixteen days the ships had finished their voyage, and so presently departed for England, without regard to their promise. Myself, not distrusting any such hard measure, proceeded in the discovery, and followed my course in the free and open sea, between the north and nor'-west, in the latitude of sixty-seven degrees, and there I might see America west from me, and Desolation east ; L 2 i8o HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. then when I saw the land of both sides, I began to distrust that it would prove but a gulf. " Notwithstanding, desirous to know the full certainty, I proceeded, and in sixty-eight degrees the passage enlarged, so that I could not see the western shore ; thus I continued to the latitude of seventy-five degrees, in a great sea, free from ice, coasting the western shore of Desolation. The people came continually rowing out unto me in their canoes, twenty, forty, and one hundred at a time, and would give me fish dried, salmon, salmon peal, cod, caplin, lump, stone bass, and such like ; besides divers kinds of birds, as partridge, pheasant, gulls, sea-birds, and other kinds of flesh. I still laboured by signs to know from them what they knew of any sea towards the north. They still made signs of a great sea, as we understood them ; then I departed from that coast, thinking to discover the north parts of America, and after I had sailed towards the west near forty leagues I fell upon a great bank of ice ; the wind being north and blew much, I was constrained to coast the same towards the south, not seeing any shore west from me, neither was there any ice towards the north, but a great sea, free, large, very salt and blue, and of an unsearchable depth. " So coasting towards the south, I came to the place where I left the ships to fish, but found them not. Then, being forsaken, and left in this distress, referring myself to the merciful providence of God, shaped my course for England, and unhoped for of any, God alone relieving me, I arrived at Dartmouth. By this last discovery it seemed most manifest that the passage was free and without impediment towards the north ; but by reason of the Spanish fleet and unfortunate time of Master Secretary's death, the voyage was omitted, and never since attempted." In this last voyage, Davis had sailed through the strait which bears his name and the bay re-discovered nearly thirty years afterwards by Baffin, and named after that navigator, as far north as what is now called Melville Bay. He was on the highway to the North Pole, but, his object being to find a passage into the Pacific, he turned away from it, and sailed west- ward. Subsequently he made five voyages to the East Indies as a pilot, and in 1605 was killed in an affray with some Japanese seamen (alleged to be pirates) off the coast of Malacca. CHAPTER XVIII. ANDREW BATTELL'S WANDERINGS IN WESTERN AFRICA. ONE of the earliest and the most remarkable narratives of exploration and adventure in Africa is that of an English sailor named Andrew Battell, whose wanderings were not prompted, however, by zeal in the cause of science CROCODILE ATTEMPTING TO SEIZE AX OX. or commerce, but were forced upon him by a misfortune that happened to him while on a voyage to Buenos Ayres, in 1589. Having gone ashore near the mouth of the River Plate, he was seized by some Indians, and conveyed by them to Rio de Janeiro, where the jealousy with which the Portuguese regarded the English caused him to be detained in prison four months, though no specific charge seems ever to have been made against him. At the end of that period he was transported to the settlement of St. Paul de Loanda, at- the mouth of the Coanza, in Angola. There he was 182 HALF- HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. employed two years and a half in piloting the governor's pinnace, and in the course of that time frequently ascended the Coanza to points from 100 to 130 miles from its mouth. At the end of the time mentioned he made an attempt to escape in RESORT OF 'APES ON WEST AFRICAN RIVER. a Dutch vessel, but was betrayed, when its success seemed assured, by a Portuguese, who was one of the Dutch captain's crew. For this attempt he was imprisoned two months, with chains about his legs, and then sent to the Portuguese fort at Mapangano, which was the convict prison of the settlement. After six years of confinement and forced labour, he and ANDREW BATTELL.- '83 ten others, of whom seven were Portuguese and three negroes, escaped in a canoe, which they paddled down the Coanza to Marrilabech. There they landed, and, having sunk the canoe, to prevent its being found and serving to indicate the direction of their flight, they struck into the forest. RIVER IN WEST AFRICA. After wandering about for three days, they met an old negro, whom they forced to guide them to Lake Casanza. On the fourth evening they crossed a river, the passage of which was made perilous by the number and ferocity of the crocodiles that infested it. Next day they met a party of negroes, who undertook to guide them to the coast. Suspicions of treachery on the part of the fugitives led to a quarrel and a conflict, in 1 84 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. which four of the negroes were killed, and the rest put to flight. Two of Battell's companions were wounded by arrows. Then they went on alone, and on the sixth night heard the murmuring of the sea. Next morning, however, the fugitives were overtaken by a detachment of Portuguese soldiers, supported by a number of negroes, and scattered themselves over the forest. One or two at a time, they were all captured, and taken to St. Paul de Loanda, where they were punished for their attempted evasion by three months' imprisonment in chains. On the expiration of that period, Battell was forced to serve in a body of four hundred men, whom the governor sent into the interior upon an errand of exploration and conquest. The first chief who refused to submit to the Portuguese had his town burned, and was by that argument induced to join the expedition with all his armed followers, numbering three thousand men. At the end of two years, during which it was employed alternately in exploring the interior and ravaging and annexing the countries they explored, the expeditionary force amounted to fifteen thousand men. The chief of Ingombe, resisting their progress at the head of twenty thousand negroes, sustained a severe defeat, and then the expedition returned to St. Paul de Loanda. Battell was now for a time employed as a pilot, and made several voyages up and down the coast. On one of these occasions he was one of a party of fifty who were sent some distance into the interior. Difficulties inter- vening, his comrades left him, promising to return in two months ; and Battell found himself in a position of considerable peril. "When the two months had elapsed, and the natives found that the Portuguese did not return, they resolved to kill him ; but he had timely warning of his danger and fled to a town called Cashil, where he was the first white man who had ever been seen. Of this town, and of the idolatrous rites of the natives, he gives the following description : " In the middle of the town stands an image the size of a man, about twelve feet from the ground ; and at the feet of this image is a circle of elephants' teeth, pitched into the ground ; and upon these teeth are placed a great quantity of the skulls of men which are killed in the wars, and offered to this image. At the feet of it palm- wine and goats' blood are poured as an offering. This image is called Quesango. The people have great belief in it, and swear by it ; and think, when they are ill, that Quesango is offended with them. In many other parts NKGRO CHIKF OF THE C.A15OON COUNTRY. ANDREW BATTELL. 187 of the town were small images with elephants' teeth piled over them. The streets of the town were paled with palm canes in a very orderly manner. The houses were in the form of a bee-hive, and hung inside with mats very curiously wrought." Battell must have been by this time tolerably well acquainted with the language and manners of the negro nations south of the Gaboon. He left Cashil in company with some Gagas, who conducted him to the camp of the Great Gaga, by whom he was hospitably received. He describes this chief as having "long hair, embroidered with many knots, full of bamba-shells of a very rich sort, and about his neck a collar of masoes another sort of shell found on that coast and which are sold among them at the rate of twenty shillings a shell, and about his middle he wears beads made of ostriches' eggs, besides a palm-cloth as fine as silk. His body is carved and cut in various marks, and every day anointed with the fat of human beings. He wears a piece of copper across his nose, two inches long, and likewise in his ears. His body is always painted red and white. He ha twenty or thirty wives, who follow him when he goes abroad ; one of them carries his bows and arrows, and four others cups with drink, and when he drinks they all kneel down, clap their hands, and sing. The women wear their hair tied and stuck full of bamba-shells, and are anointed with civet ; they wear great quantities of beads about their necks, arms, and legs, and about their middle silk." After four months of feasting and dancing the chief broke up his camp, and marched towards the mountains, plundering and burning the villages of hostile tribes. Battell accompanied him. Crossing the Longa, the force came to Calango, where they remained five or six months. Then they crossed the Gonsa, and ascended a range of lofty mountains, where it was very cold. Descending into the more congenial atmosphere of the wooded valleys and grassy plains, they followed the Gonsa to the point at which it flows into the Coanza, and the latter river to the Sierra de Prata, at the foot of which a great battle was fought with one of the tribes with which the Gagas were at war. This campaign lasted four months, during which several encounters took place, and many villages were burned. Battell says, " I was so highly esteemed by the Great Gaga, on account of the execution I did with my musket, that I could have anything I desired of him, and when we went out to battle he would charge his people to be as careful of me as 1 88 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. possible ; in consequence of which orders they would often carry me in their arms to save my life." Battell had grown weary of his savage life, however, and the idea of VILLAGE IN THE GA1JOON. escape from it seems never to have been long absent from his mind. He left the Gaga camp, and returned to the Portuguese fort at Mapangano, where he was promoted to the rank of sergeant in a company of Portuguese infantry. After another period of participation in the savage and never-ending strife ANDREW BATTELL. 189 with the negro tribes of the interior, he received permission to leave the country, and go where he would. He immediately proceeded to St. Paul de Loanda, and was preparing for his return to England, when the governor retracted his permission, and ordered him on another expedition. There was a rumour in circulation at the time that the governor had been superseded ; and as great things were always expected from a change of governors, Battell determined upon flight, hoping that the new governor would confirm the permission which his predecessor had retracted. " That night," says he, " I left the city with two negro boys I had, who carried my musket, five pounds of powder, a hundred bullets, and what little provision I could collect. By the morning I had got about twenty miles from the city, by the side of the river Bengo. Here I stayed some days, and then passed the river, and came to the river Dande, lying to the northward, on the way to St. Paul, with the intention of hearing news from thence ; for which purpose I sent one of my negroes to inquire of those who passed about the new governor, who brought me word to a certainty that the new governor should not come this year. I was now put to my shifts whether I would return to the city and be hanged (for I had run away twice), or conceal myself in the woods. " I determined on the latter, and lived in that manner a month, between the rivers Dande and Bengo. I then went to Marri Kaswea, passed over the river, and went to the Lake of Casanza, about which is the greatest quantity of wild beasts in any part of Angola. Near this lake I stayed six months, living upon dried flesh, such as deer, &c., which I killed with my musket, and dried as the savages do upon a hurdle three feet from the ground, making underneath a great fire, and laying upon the flesh green boughs, which keep the smoke and heat of the fire down, and dry it. I made my fire with two little sticks, as the savages do. Sometimes my negro boys procured me some guinea wheat from the inhabitants, in exchange for pieces of dried fish. The Lake of Casanza abounds with fish of various sorts. Thus, after having lived six months on dried fish and flesh, and seeing no likelihood of an end of my sufferings, I determined to hit upon some means of getting away. " In this lake are many islands full of trees called mcmbrc, which are as light and as soft as cork. Of these trees, by the help of a knife I had, I made a jergado in the fashion of a. boat, nailed it with wooden pegs, and railed it all round to prevent the sea washing it out, and with a blanket I had lf)O HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. I made a sail I likewise made three oars for rowing. Thus equipped, my t\vo negroes and I ventured ourselves upon the lake, which is eight miles over, and rowed to the river Bengo, going down twelve leagues with the current to the bar, which is dangerous to pass, owing to the roughness of the sea ; but ,&.; _ ;; , ?; .. : v-. ;i'./ ] T v itBH ): ' I T^vjg gg'^T^p''!,:'.' ^: y^iii.;;^^^ HIPPOPOTAMI AT THE FALLS OF A WEST AFRICAN RIVER. having passed it safely, we rowed into the sea, and sailed along the coast, which I was very well acquainted with, intending to go to the kingdom of Longo, lying to the north. Passing the night at sea, next day I saw a pinnace sailing before the wind from the city. When we came close together, ANDREW BATTELL. 191 I found the master of her to be one of my old friends and messmates ; he was bound to San Thome, and out of friendship took me in, and set me on shore at the port of Longo, where I remained three years, and got into great favour v/ith the king, owing to my killing him. deer and wild-fowl with my gun." . Here the narrative ends abruptly. There is no doubt, however, that Battell ultimately succeeded in reaching England. Purchas, who has printed the narrative in his collection of voyages and travels, prefaces it with the informa- tion that Battell was born at Leigh, in Essex, and that he sojourned among the negro tribes of Angola and Loango eighteen years. CHAPTER XIX. SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S EXPLORATIONS AND ADVENTURES IN GUIANA. AMONG the geographical myths of the sixteenth century was that of a Land of Gold, a trans-Atlantic Garden of the Hesperides, compared with whose inexhaustible auriferous treasures the wealth of Mexico and Peru was scarcely worth a thought. Like the fabulous kingdom of Prester John, it was at one time supposed to be in one part of tropical America, and at another elsewhere ; but it was finally fixed in the then unexplored region between the Orinoco and the Amazon. The story had either taken hold of the imagination of Sir Walter Raleigh, or he had conceived the idea of availing of it for ulterior purposes, when he proposed to the Ministers of Elizabeth his first expedition to the mouth of the Orinoco. " Many years since," says he, in his letter to Lord Howard and Sir Robert Cecil, " I had knowledge by relation of that mighty, rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana, and of that great and golden city which the Spaniards call El Dorado and the Naturals Manoa, which was conquered, re-edified, and enlarged by a younger son of Guamacapa, Emperor of Peru, at such time as Francisco Pizarro and others conquered the said empire from his two elder brethren Guascar and Atabalipa, both then contending for the same, the one being favoured by the Orejones of Cuzco, and the other by the people of Caxamalca. I sent my servant, Jacob Whiddon, the year before, to get knowledge of the passages, and I had some light from Captain Parker, some- time my servant, and now attending on your lordship, that such a place there was to the south-west of the great bay of Chamas, or Guanipa, but I found that it was six hundred miles farther off than they supposed, and many other impediments to them unknown and unheard." Raleigh sailed from Plymouth, on the 6th of February, 1595, in his own ship, accompanied by a small bark commanded by Captain Cross. He arrived at Trinidad on the 28th of March ; and, leaving the ships at anchor SIR WALTER RALEIGH. SIR WALTER RALEIGH. off Point Curiapass, explored the coast of the island in his barge, entering every creek, and finding (as he relates in his narrative of the expedition) oysters growing on the branches of trees, as described by Pliny. Entering; M 1-94 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Port of Spain, he gleaned all the information he could from the Spanish soldiers of the garrison, who, "having," he says, "been many years without wine, a few draughts made them merry, in which mood they vaunted of Guiana, and the riches thereof, and all that they knew of the ways and passages." Having captured the town of San Josef by a night assault, and destroyed it with fire, he returned to his anchorage, carrying with him as a prisoner the governor of the place, from whom he elicited all the information he could concerning the navigation of the Orinoco and the supposed situation of El Dorado. What he learned upon the latter point did not agree with what he had gathered from Whiddon, but he concealed the discrepancy from his followers, lest they should be deterred from the enterprise. Having been joined by two ships under the command of Captains Giffard and Keymis, and a small bark commanded by Captain Caulfield, he at length prepared to- ascend the Orinoco in quest of the Golden City. The island of Trinidad is situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Para, in the south-west corner of which is the Bay of Guanipa, into which flows- the stream that bounds the great delta of the Orinoco on the west. Casting anchor in this bay, Raleigh set about his great enterprise. " Leaving," he says, " my ships so far from me at anchor in the sea, which was more of desire to perform that discovery than of reason, especially having such poor and weak vessels to transport ourselves in ; for in the bottom of an old galcgo, which I caused to be fashioned like a galley, and in one barge r two wherries, and a ship-boat of the Lion's WJiclp, we carried a hundred persons and their victuals for a month, being all driven to lie in the rain and weather in the open air, in the burning sun, and upon the hard boards, and to dress our meat, and to carry all manner of furniture in them, where- with we were so pestered and unsavoury, that, what with victuals being most fish, with the wet clothes of so many men thrust together, and heat of the sun, I will undertake to say there never was any prison in England that could be found more unsavoury and loathsome, especially to myself, who had for many years before been dieted and cared for in a sort far more differing. If Captain Preston had not been persuaded that he should have come too late to Trinidad to have found us there (for the month was expired which I promised to tarry for him there ere he could recover the coast of, Spain), but that it had pleased God he might have joined with us, and that we had entered the country but some ten days sooner, ere the rivers were SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 195 overflown, we had adventured either to have gone to the great city of Manoa, or at least taken so many of the other cities and towns nearer at hand as would have made a royal return ; but it pleased not God so much to favour me at this time." These remarks prepare us for the failure that was to come. Raleigh sent Gifford and Caulfield to the Capuri, the entrance of which had before been explored by Whiddon, but they could not pass the sands that obstructed its mouth. He then sent the master of the Lion's Whelp to try the passage of the liver Amane, at the bottom of the Bay of Guanipa ; but he, being frightened by a report that the natives were ferocious cannibals, beat a quick retreat, and informed Raleigh that the Amane was as impracticable as the Capuri. He next had a galego cut down, so as to draw only five feet of water, and sent the master to explore the navigation in another direction. The result of this survey was the discovery of four channels, one of which was as wide as the Thames at Woolwich, but all shallow. Raleigh now resolved upon a boating expedition, and started with a hundred men, under the guidance of an Indian, who undertook to pilot them into the Orinoco. " But," says Raleigh, " of that which he entered he was utterly ignorant, for he had not seen it for twelve years before, at which time he was very young and of no judgment ; and if Gcd had not sent us another help, we might have wandered a whole year in that labyrinth of rivers before we had found any way, either out or in, especially after we were past ebbing and flowing, which was in four days ; for I know all the earth does not yield the like confluence of streams and branches, the one crossing the other so many times, and all so fair and large, and so like one to another, as no man can tell which to take; and if we went by the sun or compass, hoping thereby to go directly one way or other, yet that way we were also carried in a circle amongst multitudes of islands, and every island so bordered with high trees, as no man could see any farther than the breadth of the river, or length of the breach. But this it chanced, that entering into a river (which because it had no name, we called the river of the Red Cross, ourselevs being the first Christians that ever came therein) the 22nd of May, as we were rowing up the same, we espied a small canoe with three Indians, which (by the swiftness of my barge, rowing with eight oars) I overtook before they could cross the river, the rest of the people on the banks, shadowed under the thick wood, gazed on with a doubtful M 2 196 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. conceit what might befall those three which we had taken. But when they perceived that we offered them no violence, neither entered their canoe with any of ours, nor took out of the canoe any of theirs, then they began to show themselves on the bank's side, and offered to traffic with us for such things as they had. And as we drew near, they all stayed, and we came ORINOCO INDIANS DINING. 198 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. with our barge to the mouth of a little creek which came from their town into the great river." Here the Indian pilot and his brother went ashore for wine and fruit, and had a narrow escape of being slain, the chief of that district being angry with them for bringing strangers into the country. The pilot fled into the woods, hotly chased by his countrymen, and reaching the creek by great exertion, plunged in, and swam to the barge. His brother, being fleeter of foot, had previously reached the creek, and paddled off in the canoe. An old Indian was seized by Raleigh as a hostage for the safe return of the pilot, and was installed in the latter's place. Under the guidance of this -old man, the expedition ascended the river with the tide, anchoring when the tide began to ebb. On the third day the galley grounded, and could not be hauled off until all the ballast was cast out. Next day they entered the river Amana, where there was no tide, and the current ran so strong, that rowing became hard work. The explorers persevered for three days, when, the current running stronger than ever, and the heat being very great, while their stock of food was very low, they began to despond. The old Indian persuaded them to enter a channel on the right, up which, he told them, there was a village, where they would be able to obtain supplies. They rowed on, therefore, for forty miles, when, no village appearing, the rowers murmured, and the officers proposed that the Indian should be hanged. " If we had well known our way back, he had surely gone," says Raleigh. It was now dark, and the river very narrow, and overhung by trees. About an hour after midnight lights were observed ahead, and soon after- wards a village was reached. Most of the inhabitants were absent, having accompanied the chief on an expedition to the head of the Orinoco ; but bread, fish, and poultry were obtained, and the explorers rested and refreshed themselves. Daylight showed them that they were in a very beautiful country, where deer came to the river's brink to drink, and the woods were full of birds of every colour. Alligators were numerous, however, and a negro belonging to Raleigh was seized by one of these voracious reptiles, and swallowed in sight of the company. Continuing the ascent of the river, they saw four canoes, and gave chase. Two escaped, and two were run ashore, the men who were in them concealing themselves in the woods. Excellent bread was found in the canoes, which the pursuers appropriated, and, being greatly invigorated by their meal, explored INDIANS SHOOTING TURTLE. INDIANS SHOOTING FISH. 200 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. 'the woods for the fugitives. Having at length found them, they took one for a pilot, and sent back their former pilots in one of the canoes. Next day the galley grounded, and remained fast all night, but was hauled off on the following morning by means of an anchor fixed in the bank. On the fifteenth day they " discovered afar off the mountains of Guiana, to our great joy," and towards evening, the wind blowing strongly from the north, came in sight of the Orinoco. Here they saw three canoes, but chased them in vain, though they found one in a mouth of a branch of the river, and took from it a welcome supply of fish and turtles' eggs. Anchoring for the night, they landed on the sands, where they found thousands of turtles' eggs, and on the following morning a chief came to them with thirty or forty of the men of his tribe, and conducted them to his village, " where some of our captains caroused of his wine until they were reasonably pleasant." Two other caziques, with their wives, were guests at the Court, if we may use the term, of this chief, and of one of their wives Raleigh says: " In all my life I have seldom seen a better favoured woman. She was of good stature, with black eyes, fat of body, of an excellent countenance ; her hair almost as long as herself, tied up again in pretty knots ; and it seemed she stood not in that awe of her husband as the rest, for she spake, and discoursed, and drank among the gentlemen and captains, and was very pleasant, knowing her own comeliness, and taking great pride therein. I have seen a lady in England so- like to her as, but for the difference of colour, I would have sworn might have been the same." The chief of this village provided Raleigh with a pilot, under whose guidance the adventurers began to ascend the Orinoco, which seems to have been regarded as a perilous undertaking, owing to the "wonderful eddies and strong currents, many great islands and divers shoals, and very dangerous rocks ; and, besides, upon any increase of wind, so great a billow as we were sometimes in great peril of drowning in the galley, for the small boats durst not come from shore but when it was very fair." Next day the wind changed, and a strong easterly breeze saved them much of the labour of rowing. Passing the island of Assapana, opposite which they saw a river flowing into the Orinoco from the north, they anchored at night by the island of Ocaywita, and on the following night by the island of Putapayma, choosing islands rather than the main banks to SIX WALTER RALEIGH. 201 anchor under, on account of their being better adapted for fishing, and abounding in turtles' eggs, which had now become recognised as most luxu- INDIANS MASHING TURTLES' EGGS. rious food. On the following day they surveyed the country on the right, which their Indian pilot told them was the great plain of Sayma, stretching 202 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. northward to Cumana and Caraccas. They anchored at night off the opposite bank, and on the following night near a village, the chief of which visited them next morning, attended by many of his people, bringing venison, pork, poultry, fish, fruit, vegetables, and bread. This cazique, who said he was a hundred and ten years of age, and had walked fourteen miles to see them, also presented Raleigh with an' armadillo and several parrakeets, of different kinds, one of which was no bigger than a wren. On the following night they anchored off the island of Caiama, and next day reached the mouth of the Caroli, which was as wide as the Thames at Woolwich, but so shallow that Raleigh's barge had not water enough to get in. The adventurers encamped on the bank, therefore, and, having received some supplies of food from a neighbouring chief, divided themselves into three parties, for the purpose of exploring the country. One party, com- manded by Captain Whiddon, searched for gold ; some of the gentlemen volunteers ascended the river by land, and Raleigh himself set off to view the falls of the Caroli. " We beheld," he says, " that wonderful breach of waters which ran down Caroli, and might from the mountains see the river how it ran in three parts, above twenty miles off ; and there appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every one as high over the others as a church tower, which fell with such fury that the rebound of water made it seem as if it had been all covered over with a great shower of rain ; and in some places we took it for a smoke that had risen over some great town. For my own part, I was well persuaded from thence to have returned, being a very ill footman, but the rest were all so desirous to go near the said strange thunder of waters, as they drew me on by little and little, till we came into the next valley, where we might better discern the same. I never saw a more beautiful country, nor more lovely prospects ; hills so raised here and there over the valleys, the river winding into divers branches, the plains adjoining, without bush or stubble, all fair green grass ; the ground of hard sand, easy to march on, either for horse or foot ; the deer crossing in every path, the birds towards the evening singing on every tree, with a thousand several tunes ; cranes and herons of white, crimson, and carnation, perching in the river's side ; the air fresh with a gentle easterly wind, and every stone that we stooped to take up promised either gold or silver by its complexion." Captain Whiddon had, in the meantime, found some stones which were thought to be sapphires ;." but," says Raleigh, "whether it be crystal of the SSX WALTER RALEIGH. 203 mountains, Bristol diamond, or sapphire, I do not yet know, but I hope the best." They were in a land which their imaginations had prepared them to find filled with marvels, and Raleigh gravely relates that he heard reports of VIEW IN THE DELTA OF THE ORINOCO. a people " whose heads appear not above their shoulders," their eyes being in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts, and long hair growing between their shoulder-blades. He refers to Mandeville's relation of such a people, and expresses his belief that such a race of monstrosities 204 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. really existed, the credibility of the report being affirmed by every one. He met afterwards at Cumana a Spaniard, who assured him that he had seen many of these acephalous beings ! The ascent of the Orinoco was not continued beyond this point. The wet- season had commenced, and the river was rising daily, while the explorers A CALM ON THE RIVER. were exposed to almost incessant showers of rain and violent gusts of wind. Raleigh determined, therefore, to rejoin his ships, first collecting some speci- mens of gold ore, and leaving a man and a boy at the village of the cente- narian cazique to learn the language of the Indians. He would not leave the Orinoco, however, without learning all he could of the natural features and products of that hitherto unexplored region. Having heard of an auriferous mountain near the banks of the Manae, he made another excursion SIX WALTER RALEIGH. 205 inland, finding the woods full of deer and the rivers alive with fish and fowl. He forded a river that watered a beautiful valley, and rested awhile by the shores of a lake, in which a manatee was seen. He went no farther himself, but, leaving Captain Keymis to complete the survey in that direction, returned to the Orinoco, and entered a branch of the Winicapora. He had received a report of a marvellous mountain of crystal, and wished to have ocular demonstration of its existence. " We saw it afar off," says he, " and it appeared like a white church-tower of an exceeding height. There falleth over it a mighty river which toucheth no part of the side of the mountain, but rusheth over the top of it, and falleth to the ground with so terrible a noise and clamour, as if a thousand great bells were knocked one against another. I think there is not in the world so strange an overfall, nor so wonderful to behold. Beneo told me that there were diamonds and other precious stones on it, and that they shined very far off; but what it hath I know not, neither durst he or any of his men ascend to the top of the said mountain, those people adjoining being his enemies, and the way to it so impassable." 'The chief of the next village at which he arrived had offered to furnish a guide to the crystal mountain ; but his visit was made at the time of a native festival, and " we found them all as drunk as beggars, and the pots walking from one to another without rest." The adventurers, being weary and athirst, joined in the carouse, and the crystal mountain seems to have been forgotten. Having obtained supplies of provisions and wine, the descent of the river was continued in a violent thunderstorm, and the next day they reached the island of Assapana, where they feasted on the armadillo. Storm now succeeded storm, and they were constantly wet to their skins ; but the strength of the current enabled them to run a hundred miles daily, .and on the following night they anchored at the mouth of the Capuri. When they reached the Bay of Guanipa, where the ships had been left .at anchor, they found them gone ; and, as the weather daily became more tempestuous, they rowed by night across the mouth of the estuary, and at nine o'clock on the following morning had Trinidad in sight, where they found the vessels safely anchored. Returning to England, Raleigh was mortified to find that little regard was paid to his narrative of his discoveries, either by the queen or by the nation. As he had not enriched himself by the expedition, it was concluded KING JAMES I. SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 207 that the metalliferous riches which he described in such glowing colours had no existence. He had not related the result of the journey of Captain Keymis to the "gold mountains," but when he had been several years in the Tower, for his participation in the conspiracy against James I., he dis- seminated a report of a rich gold mine which he had discovered in Guiana, and the tide of public sympathy at once turned in his favour. James gave CHAMBER IN THE TOWER WHERE RALEIGH WAS IMPRISONED. little credit to the report, but he ordered Raleigh's release, and subsequently gave him permission to lead a second expedition to the Orinoco, with the stipulation that he was not to attack any settlement of the Spaniards, with whom the nation was then at peace. The disastrous result of this second expedition is matter of history. Raleigh, on reaching the mouth of the Orinoco, sent a force under his son and Captain Keymis, to attack the Spanish settlement of San Tomas, which 208 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. was taken by assault and destroyed by fire. Though Keymis pretended to be well acquainted with the locality of the gold mine, and to be within a few miles of it, he refused to lead his followers to it, and returned to the ships, which were lying at anchor at the mouth of the river. What passed between him and Raleigh is unknown, but Keymis retired to his cabin, and committed suicide ; while the disappointment felt by their followers was so great that they resolved to return to England, and take Raleigh with them to answer to the king for his depredations against a nation with which England was at peace. On the return of the expedition, the Spanish Court was clamorous against Raleigh, and, as he had not been pardoned by the king, the warrant for his execution was signed, and the sentence was carried out which had been hanging over him for years. CHAPTER XX. THE PERILOUS VOYAGE OF WILLIAM BARENTZ IN SEARCH OF A NORTH-EAST PASSAGE TO CHINA. AMONG the various attempts to discover an ocean route to the East by going " north about " that were made during the latter part of the sixteenth century, the most memorable was that of the Dutch navigator, Barentz ; and the narrative of the dangers encountered, and of the expedients resorted to in struggling manfully against thefa, is one of the most interesting records of maritime explorations that have ever been written. It was a great object with the Dutch, who, like the English and the French, were now preparing to compete with the Spaniards for the trade of the world, to avoid the long voyage to India by the Cape of Good Hope ; and, with a view to this end, they sought to discover an ocean route to the East by the passage sought in vain by the unfortunate Sir Hugh Willoughby. Barentz sailed from Holland in the summer of 1596, and reached the sea between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, where they found so great an accu- mulation of ice that farther progress was impracticable. Stupendous masses of ice, drifting with the wind, crushed around the ship with a violence that " made all the hair of our heads to rise upright with fear." They began to fear that they would have to remain there all the winter, begirt with ice and snow ; and, though they exerted themselves to the utmost to avoid .so terrible an alternative, when September came, their journal relates that "we saw that we could not get out of the ice, but rather became faster, and could not loose our ship, as at other times we had done, as also that it began to be winter, we took counsel together what we were best to do, according to the time, that we might winter there, and attend such adventure as God would send us ; and after we had debated upon the matter (to keep and defend ourselves both from the cold and wild beasts), we determined to build a house upon the land, to keep u? herein as well as we could, and so to N 2IO HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. commit ourselves into the tuition of God." The dreary shore where they thus prepared to winter was the gloomy and inhospitable region of Nova Zembla. While engaged in seeking for materials for their house, they fortunately MATKRIALS FOR THE HOUSE. discovered a large quantity of drift timber, which they regarded as a special interposition of Providence in their behalf, and " were much comforted, being in good hope that God would show us some further favour ; for that wood served us not only to build our house, but also to burn, and serve us all the winter long ; otherwise, without all doubt, we had died there miserably with extreme cold." They immediately began building the house, and bringing WILLIAM BARENTZ. 211 up their stores from the ship on small sledges, in which labours they were frequently interrupted, sometimes by snow-storms, and at others by the formidable apparition of a growling polar bear. The cold was so intense that, if a man inadvertently held a nail between his lips, it caused him as much ATTACK ON T A HEAR. pain as if it had been heated. The building proceeded slowly, but it was finished by the end of October, and thatched with sea-weed. Then " we set up our dial, and made the clock strike ; " but, as the cold became more intense towards the middle of November, the clock stopped, and they had to reckon time by " the twelve-hour glass." After the 4th of November they saw the sun no more until near the 212 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. end of January. All the spare clothing was distributed, regulations made with regard to diet, and each man had his duties assigned to him, the master and pilot alone being exempted from cleaving wood, and such like labours. Sometimes they were able to take exercise, and to examine the traps in SECURING THE BOAT. which they took foxes for food ; but at others they could not open their door for several days together, owing to the drifting of the snow, and, besides being tormented with the smoke, for which there was no outlet, they had no light but that of their log-fire. Some idea may be formed of the misery these poor fellows endured from such entries in the journal as the following : " It was foul weather again, with an easterly wind and extreme cold, almost WILLIAM BARENTZ. 213 not to be endured ; whereupon we looked pitifully one upon the other, being in great fear that, if the extremity of the cold grew to be more and more* we should all die there with cold ; for that what fire soever we made it would not warm us ; yea, and our sack, which is so hot, was frozen, very hard, so SKTTINO rOX-TRAI that when we were every man to have his part, we were forced to melt it in the fire, which we shared every second day about half a pint for a man, wherewith we were forced to sustain ourselves; and at other times we drank water, which agreed not well with the cold, and we needed not to cool it with snow or ice, but were forced to melt it out of the snow." Sometimes, while they sat by their fire, "and seemed to burn on the fire- 21 \ J'ALF-HOURS WJTH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. side, we froze behind at our backs, and were all white, as the countrymen used to be when they came in at the gates of the towns in Holland with their sledges, and have gone all night." Under date December iQth we read : "We put each other in good comfort, that the sun was then almost half over, and CARRYING HOME THE l.'EAD BEAT. ready to come to us again, which we sore longed for, it being a weary time for us to be without the sun, and to want the greatest comfort that God sendeth unto man here upon the earth, and that which rejoiceth every living thing." They kept Twelfth Night also, when they " made pancakes with oil, and every man a white biscuit, which we sopped in wine : and so, supposing that we were in our own country and amongst our friends, it comforted us as WILLIAM BARENTZ. 215 well as if we had made a great banquet in our own house : and we also made tickets, and our gunner was king of Nova Zembla, which is at least two hundred miles long, and lieth between two seas." This is an allusion to the now almost obsolete custom of drawing lots for the personation of certain imaginary characters. PREPARING TO LEAVE 1HK LAND. It was not until the 24th of January that they saw the sun again, a sight that raised their drooping spirits, which had by that time sunk to the lowest ebb. Several of the party were sick, and one died. A grave seven feet deep was dug in the snow, and then, as the journal records, with touching mournful ness, " after that we had read certain chapters and sung some psalms, we all 2l6 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. went out, and buried the man." As the days grew longer, and less cold, they began their preparations for departure, repairing their two boats, in good hope " to get out of that wild, desert, irksome, fearful, and cold country." On the 1 3th of June, the survivors of this ill-starred expedition, twelve in RELIEVED. number, left the desolate shore on which they had passed ten weary months, in the hope of making their way to some part of the coast of Russia or Lapland. Barentz and two others were so enfeebled by disease that they died soon afterwards. The survivors struggled manfully onwards, enduring all the privations, and encountering all the dangers, incidental to a voyage upon an ice-encumbered sea in small boats ; and in September reached the coast of WILLIAM BARENTZ. 217 Lapland, where they " saw some trees on the river side, which comforted us, and made us glad, as if we had then come into a new world ; for in all the time we had been out we had not seen any trees." Rowing wearily, but hopefully, up the river Kola, they arrived at the little town of that name on MOUTH OF THE KOLA. the i ith, after a voyage of eleven hundred and forty-three miles in open boats,, and, hence obtaining passages in a Dutch ship, in a few weeks again set foot in their native country. From the time when Barentz and his companions undertook their perilous boat-voyage from Nova Zembla to Lapland, the dreary scene of their winter 2i8 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. residence was unvisited until the summer of 1871, when Captain Carlsen landed there, and found the wooden house just as they had left it nearly three centuries before. The ashes of their last fire were still on the hearth, and about the house were several interesting relics, which Captain Carlsen brought away, and are now in the possession of the Dutch government. Among them are the shoes of the poor boy who died on the island, and was buried in the snow ; the old clock shown in one of the plates engraved for the quaint narrative of Gerritz de Veer ; a copper dial, with a meridian line drawn on it, which is supposed to be an instrument for determining the variation of the compass, invented by Plancius, the. famous cosmographer, whose pupil Barentz was ; the flute on which Barentz played when he and his mariners Icept Twelfth Night ; and three books, namely, a translation of Medina on " Seamanship," a " Chronicle of Holland," and a translation of Mendoza's " History of China." CHAPTER XXI. THE CIRCUMNAVIGATIONS OF OLIVER VAN NOORT AND SEBALD DE WEERT. Ox the outbreak of war between Spain and Holland, at the close of the sixteenth century, two expeditions sailed from Dutch ports with those double objects of cruising against the enemy and making geographical discoveries which characterised the enterprises of Drake and Raleigh. The larger of the two squadrons, and the first to sail, consisted of five vessels, the largest of which was two hundred and fifty tons burden, and was commanded by Jacques de Mahu. This expedition sailed from the Texel on the 27th of June, 1598 ; and on the 2nd of July Oliver van Noort sailed from the Scheldt in command of two vessels, and was joined on the coast of England by two others, and by an English pilot named Mellish, who had sailed with Cavendish in the second English circumnavigation. Van Noort sighted the coast of Guinea on the 3rd of November, and landed on Prince's Island to obtain supplies, which he was led by a negro whom he encountered on the beach to believe would be readily granted. The boat's crew were attacked by the natives, however, and Van Noort's brother, with several seamen, were slain. In revenge for this unprovoked aggression, the admiral burned the sugar-houses on the island, and, after obtaining a supply of fresh water, proceeded on his voyage. Passing the Island of Annabon on the 1st of January, 1599, he tljen changed his course, and crossed the Atlantic, arriving at Rio de Janeiro on the 9th of February. Difficulties arising with the Portuguese authorities there, he sailed to the Island of San Sebastiano, where he took in wood and water. Proceeding to sea again, the ships were separated on the I4th of March by a violent storm, and the admiral, with two ships, steered to the southward. Scurvy disabled so many of the men, however, that, not being allowed to land in Brazil, and being unable to reach either Ascension or St. Helena, he ran to the Island of Santa Clara. Wild plums and anti-scorbutic herbs were here so 220 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. plentiful that the invalids were convalescent within a fortnight after their arrival. The ships then sailed to Port Desire, on the east coast of Patagonia, where fish and penguins were abundant enough to furnish them with an ample supply of food. Van Noort next sailed up a river to explore the country, and saw numbers VIEW IN STRAIT. OF MAGALHAEX. of wild cattle, deer, and rhcas. Resolving to land, he desired the boat's crew not to leave the boat, but in his absence they went ashore, in disobedience to his injunction, and falling into an ambuscade of the savage natives, were driven back to the boat, losing three of their number by the arrows of the Indians, besides having another wounded. This was the beginning of a long series of disasters. When the ships arrived at the mouth of the Strait of Magalhaen, the weather was so stormy that they were beaten back, and when OLIVER VAN NOORT AND SEBALD DE WEERT. 221 they anchored they were driven from their anchorage, with loss of anchors and cables. Sickness prevailed amongst the crews, and dissensions amongst the officers. Landing on an island near Cape Nassau, an affray took place between the Dutchmen and some Indians, in which one of the latter was killed, upon which TYPES OF NATIVES OF ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC. the rest retreated to a cave in which their wives and children were concealed, and were every one killed. Four boys and two girls were carried off by the victors to their ships. They then sailed for Port Famine, where they found only a heap of stones and rubbish to indicate the spot whereon had been founded the Spanish settlement of San Felipe. Sailing from this place on the 1st of December, they doubled Cape Forward on the following day, and anchored in a bay, where they found a vessel of the squadron which had sailed 222 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. from the Texel, and which, after having reached the Pacific, had been dispersed by storms. Early in the following year, Van Noort got to sea again, but storms and inclement weather forced him into Maurice Bay, where two of his crew were killed by the natives while gathering mussels on the desolate shore. On the ENVIRONS OF PORT FAMINE. last day of February, the ships passed Cape Desire, and entered the Pacific. On the 1 2th of March, the vice-admiral's ship was lost in a storm, and Van Noort sailed northward alone, and anchored off the island of Mocha, where he obtained "sheep" (probably alpacas are meant) and maize, in exchange for hatchets and knives. Putting to sea again, a Spanish vessel, laden with meal, was chased and captured near the island of Santa Maria. In the harbour of OLIVER VAN NOORT AND SEBALD DE WEERT. 223 Valparaiso two other vessels were captured, and some Indians killed ; but the Spanish inhabitants had fled, as they had done in 1578 from Drake. On the ist of April, the ship anchored in the Bay of La Guesco, where she laid six days. Callao was in sight on the 25th, but Van Noort then changed his course, and ran for the Ladrones. VIEW OF MANILLA. Having obtained much needed supplies at one of these islands by repre- senting himself to be a Spaniard, he steered for the Philippines, capturing on the way a Chinese junk, laden with provisions, and a barque bearing native tribute of pigs and poultry to Manilla. Off the island of Luzon, a large Spanish ship was encountered, and a sharp fight ensued, in which Van Noort's ship was boarded, and on the point of becoming a prize to the enemy, when the 224 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. admiral, with the energy of desperation, threatened to blow up the ship, and by this menace rallied his nearly beaten crew, and drove the Spaniards back to their own vessel. The latter were then boarded in their turn, and, though they repelled the attack, their ship was so terribly crippled by the Dutchman's guns that it sunk immediately afterwards. The Dutch ship was found to be INDIAN FAMILY GOING TO MARKET. on fire at the same moment, and in the confusion that prevailed before the flames were extinguished the struggling Spaniards were left to drown. Van Noort then sailed for Borneo, where he arrived on the 26th, and traded for pepper with the Pataree merchants, who are supposed to be of Chinese origin. The aboriginal race planned an attack on the Dutch, however, and surrounded the ship with a hundred proas, but abandoned the enterprise on being threatened with a broadside. On the night of the 4th of January, four natives made an attempt to cut the cable by which the vessel OLIVER VAN NOORT AND SEBALD f DE WEERT. 225 was moored, but were discovered in time, and on being fired at made their escape to the shore. Putting to sea again, the Dutchmen seized a junk, and took from her a pilot, of whose services they were much in need, and sailing through the Strait of Sunda, steered for the Cape of Good Hope. On the night of the 24th of April, when Van Noort supposed the ship to be thirty-six leagues from land, a light was seen about four miles distant, bearing north-west ; and next day he found himself in latitude 34 45' south. At night a light was again seen, and on the 26th the Cape was visible to the north-east, having been passed before the navigator was aware of its proximity. On the 26th of May he anchored at St. Helena, and remained there four days to refresh his crew. On the 26th of August he was at anchor in the Texel. We must now return to the squadron commanded by Jacques de Mahu, which had experienced a similar series of casualties and disasters. The admiral dying at one of the Cape Verde Islands, Simon de Cordes, the vice-admiral, succeeded to the chief command, and the voyage was continued to the southward. The provisions being bad in quality and insufficient in quantity, scurvy showed itself among the crews. They steered for Annobon ; but finding themselves nearer land than they had calculated by 120 miles, they ran for Cape Lopez, where they remained some time, trafficking with the negroes. On the 23rd of November a French sailor went aboard the admiral's ship, and offered his services, representing that he was on good terms with the King of Congo'. Sebald de Weert, who commanded the smallest vessel of the squadron, her burden being only seventy-five tons, was deputed by Cordes to wait upon the sable monarch, whom he found, as Purchas relates, sitting " on a throne scarcely one foot high, with a lamb's skin under his feet, his garment of violet-coloured cloth with gilded lace, attired like a rower, without shirt, shoes, or stockings ; having a parti-coloured cloth on his head, and many glass beads about his neck ; attended with his courtiers, adorned with cocks' feathers. The palace was not comparable to a stable. His provision was brought him by women a few roasted plantains and smoke-dried fish in wooden vessels, with wine of palm in such sparing measure that Massanissa and the renowned examples of temperance might have been this negro's disciples. Once the Dutch captain was fain (under cover of courtesy to show the king his manner of diet) to call for some of o GIANT PENGUINS. OLIVER VAN NOORT AND SRBALD DE WEERT. 227 his Holland provision to satisfy his barking, and thus more provoked entrails. A JAPANESE GOVERNOR. But in the Spanish wine the Guinean forgot his temperance, and was carried to his rest." Hunting and shooting parties were made up while the squadron was on o 2 228 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. this coast, and two buffaloes, a boar, and some birds were bagged. With fresh provisions and vegetables on board, the scurvy disappeared ; but the YOUNG JAPANESE GIRL PAINTING HER LIPS. heat and moisture of the climate generated fever, and Cordes deemed it advisable to get to sea again. The squadron left Cape Lopez on the 8th of December, and proceeded to Annobon, whence, after supplying themselves by OLIVER VAN NOORT AND SEBALD DE WEERT, 229 force with whatever they required, they steered to the southward. On the roth of March, 1599, being in latitude 42 S., the sea was seen "all red, -as if it was mixed with blood, being full of red worms, which, taken up, leaped like fleas." On the 6th of April, the squadron entered the Strait of Magalhaen, and some of the crews, landing on the Penguin Islands, killed between thirteen and fourteen hundred of the birds after which the group of rocky islets is named. On the 1 8th the ships anchored in Green Bay, where they remained until the 23rd of August. The winter was one of perpetual storm rain, wind, hail, and snow ; and, besides losing their anchors and cables, and having the sails torn by the fury of the gale, the crews suffered frightfully from sickness, Ihunger, and the inclemency of the weather. In the quaint language of Purchas, "want of stores and store of wants conspired a fulness of miseries." Nearly a hundred men were buried on the snow-covered shores of that desolate region between the middle of April and the end of August. Some of these deaths were due to the hostility of the savage natives. On one occasion .a fishing party was surrounded by seven canoes, filled with men described as being ten or eleven feet high, with red bodies and long black hair, who, uttering fearful yells, assailed them with stones. Four or five of the savages sbeing shot, the rest paddled to the shore, and constructed a barricade of trees, behind which they prepared to defend themselves. The Dutchmen returned to their ship, and avoided the conflict. On another occasion a party that were seeking mussels along the shore were attacked by the natives, and three of them slain with darts, the heads of which were serrated, and inflicted terrible wounds. The corpses of these unfortunate men were afterwards disinterred by the savages, and mutilated in a most horrible manner. On the 3rd of September they passed out of the strait into the Pacific, and sailed to the island of Santa Maria, where Cordes and twenty-three of the crew of his ship were killed by the natives. Then a violent storm arose, and the ships were dispersed, one of them being driven back to the bay near Cape Forward, where it was found by Van Noort. This was the little vessel commanded by Sebald de Weert. Two months of incessant rain and hail- storms followed, and it was near the end of January, 1600, when de Weert .again put to sea. Three islands were then discovered, about sixty miles from the mainland, to which he gave the name of the Sebaldine Isles, by which they were for a long time known. They are now called the Falkland Islands. 230 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS.. Another vessel of the squadron, commanded by Theodore Gerritz, had, in the \VJLL ADAMS liKFORE THE EMI'EROR. meantime, been driven by storms and contrary winds to the sixty-fourths parallel of south latitude, " in which height," says Purchas, " the country was- OLIVER VAN NOORT AND SEBALD DE WEER7. 233 mountainous, and covered with snow, looking like Norway. It seemed to extend to the islands of Salomon." This mountainous land is now supposed to be the South Shetland Islands, which were rediscovered more than two centuries later by Captain Smith. After his discovery of the Falklands, De Weert made his way into the Pacific again, and, by the advice of his pilot, an Englishman named Adams, steered for Japan. During the long run across the Pacific great sickness pre- vailed among the crew, so that when, on the nth of April, the coast of Japan was sighted, " there were no more," according to the narrative afterwards written by Adams, " than six besides myself that could stand upon their feet. So we in safety let fall our anchor about a league from a place called Bungo. At which time came to us many boats, and we suffered them to come aboard, being not able to resist them, neither of us understanding the one the other. Within two or three days after our arrival, there came a Jesuit from a place called Langasacke, to which place the carrack of Amakan is yearly wont to come, which, with other Japanese that were Christians, were our interpreters, which was not to our good, they being our mortal enemies. Nevertheless, the King of Bungo (the place where we had arrived) showed us great friendship, for he gave us a house on land, where we landed our siclc men, and had all refreshing that was needful. " We had, when we came to anchor in Bungo, sick and whole, four-and- twenty men, of which number the next day three died. The rest for the most part recovered, saving three, which lay a long time sick, and in the end also died. In the which time of our being here, the emperor, hearing of us, sent presently five galleys or frigates so as to bring me to the Court, where his highness was, which was distant from Bungo about eighty English leagues ; so that as soon as I came before him, he demanded of me of what country we were ; so I answered him at all points, for there was nothing that he demanded not, both concerning war and peace between country and country, so that the particulars here to write would be too tedious. And for that time I was commanded to prison, being well used, with one of our mariners that came to serve me." The imprisonment of Adams is considered to have been due to the hostility of the Portuguese residents, and especially of the Jesuits. After a detention of about six weeks, however, he was again sent for by the emperor, from whom he received permission to go at large. De Weert A RECEPTION BV THE MIKADO, IN FORMER TIMES. OLIVER VAN NOORT AND SEBALD DE WEERT. 235 had, in the meantime, sailed round to Osaca, where the emperor was temporarily residing ; and, on being joined by Adams and the Dutch sailors, ACTORS OF THE EMPEROR'S COURT. applied to the authorities for permission to sail, "which, according to one' account, was refused. Purchas, who says nothing of these adventures of 236 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Adams, states that De Weert arrived in the Maes on the I4th of July, 1600; but it may have been another vessel of the squadron which had BIRDS OF JAPAN. left the Texel in 1598 that arrived there De Weert's ship, according to another account, having been wrecked on the coast of Japan. OLIVER VAN NOORT AND SEBALD DE WEERT. 237 However the facts may have been, it is certain that Adams remained in Japan during the remainder of his life. Being a man of considerable mental powers and mechanical ingenuity, he became very useful to the emperor in building vessels on the English model, and was rewarded with several fine estates, which enabled him to live in a style equal to that of THE SACRED MOUNTAIN OF JAPAN. the nobles of the land. Having a wife and children in England, however, he was desirous of returning to his native country, and would willingly have resigned his splendid position in Japan for permission to return home. He petitioned for leave in vain, but was at length informed that, though he could not be allowed to leave Japan, he might invite his countrymen hither, with the understanding that they would be allowed to trade on the most advantageous footing. This Adams set about doing, but the difficulty of communicating with 238 HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS. Europe was in those days very great. The Spanish and Portuguese who resorted to Japanese ports could not be trusted, and Adams was several years in the country before a long letter, which he addressed to any English or' Dutch merchants into whose hands it might fall, was delivered, through the instrumentality of a Japanese junk, to an adventurous Dutch captain, after it had travelled about the eastern seas for three years. This missive was the means of attracting the Dutch to Japan, where they soon found means to supplant the Portuguese. The conduct of the new comers does not seem to have pleased Adams, and he addressed a second letter to English merchants in the Indian seas, inviting them to go to Japan, and promising them the favour of the emperor. This letter fell into the hands of John Saris, who lived at Bantam as the chief of the English factory there, and he immediately proceeded to Firando, was warmly welcomed by Adams, and made a visit to Yeddo, where he was favourably received by the emperor. The result was the establishment of an English factory at Firando, of which Richard Cocks became the chief director, while a subordinate position only was assigned to William Adams. It is probable, however, that the latter accepted this post only with the hope of being enabled to leave the country secretly, and return to England. But it was not to be. He ended his days in Japan, dying at Firando about 1619 or 1620. A gentleman named Walter, who was recently in Japan, found his tomb on the top of a hill, commanding a magnificent view of the coast; and in a neighbouring village the priests have preserved a bronze figure said to have belonged to him, and a letter written by him, thanking the villagers for bringing him evergreens to decorate his house on the occasion of some Japanese festival. THE END. CAJSELL, PETTEK, & GALI-IN, BELLE SAUVAGE WORKS, LONDON, E.G. A SELECTED LIST OF m's w PUBLICATIONS, Illustrated Volumes for Children and Young People. The Little Folks' Picture Gallery. Containing about One Hundred and Fifty beautiful Pictures, with accompanying Rhymes, by the Author of " Home Chat" Fourth Edition, Enlarged. Crown 4to, cloth gilt, with Medallion, 53. The Children's Album. Containing nearly Two Hundred Engravings, with Short Stories by UNCLE JOHN. Also several Pieces of Music. 368 pages. Sixtieth Thousand. Cloth gilt, 33. 6d. The Children's Sunday Album. 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